3 1822 00023 2405
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
IVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
EX LIBRIS
DOMINUS PROVIDEBIT
ISIDORI BERNARDI
DOCIOVEILER
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VOLUME II
LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
LIFE OF
CARDINAL GIBBONS
ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE
BY
ALLEN SINCLAIR WILL
M.A., LITT.D., LL-D.*^
VOLUME II
Render therefore to Caesar the things
that are Caesar's and to God the things
that are God's. Matthew xxii, 21.
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
Copyright, 1922,
BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the TTnlted States of America
CONTENTS
VOLUME II
CHAPTER FAGS
XXXIII The Providential Leader 585-594
Silver jubilee of Gibbons' episcopacy celebrated in 1893 w^hen
his influence was nearing its height. — Letter and gift from
Leo XIII. — Sermon of Archbishop Ireland in the Baltimore
Cathedral on "The Church and the Age." — He hails Leo as
the providential Pope and Gibbons as the providential Arch-
bishop, "a Catholic of Catholics, an American of Americans."
—Banquet in honor of Gibbons attended by high public offi-
cers.— He expresses satisfaction with the relations of Church
and State in the United States. — Profoundly moved by the
death of Cardinal Manning. — Their close relations and
sharing of views.
XXXIV War with Spain— Friar Lands 59S-623
Gibbons' work for international peace. — Letter commending
President Cleveland on the Venezuela arbitration. — He joins
Cardinals Logue and Vaughan in an appeal to the English
speaking peoples in behalf of arbitration. — Urges calmness in
the American attitude following the explosion which wrecked
the battleship Maine in Havana harbor. — Supports the Papal
offer of mediation between Spain and the United States. —
When war breaks out he urges that "we must love our
country next to God and be ready to die for it if necessary."
— Cooperation with the Government during the War. —
McKinley consults him on the retention of the Philippines. —
He makes possible the purchase of the Friar lands in the
Philippines on the American terms when all other efforts
fail. — Another visit to Rome.
XXXV Influence on the Election of Pius X . . . . 624-651
President Cleveland sends through Cardinal Gibbons a gift
to Leo XIII in honor of the golden jubilee of the Pope's
episcopate. — Leo's silver jubilee as Pope. — Death of Leo. —
Gibbons hastens to Rome in order to be the first American
to take part in electing a Pope. — Regulations of the Conclave.
— Austria vetoes the election of Rampolla. — The voting turns
to Cardinal Sarto, but he declines support.— ^-Cardinal Gibbons
induces Satolli to carry a plea to Cardinal Sarto which
induces him to accept. — Sarto takes the name of Pius X. —
Marks of his gratitude to Gibbons. — Their conferences on
V
vi CONTENTS
the Church in America. — The new Pope promises help to the
Catholic University.
XXXVI New Ovations at Home 652-669
Gibbons' prestige at home and abroad heightened by his influ-
ence on the decision of the Papal Conclave. — Great public
welcome in Baltimore on his return. — In a sermon on the
Conclave he tells of the fairness vi^hich is attained in the
procedure that marks the election of a Pope. — Pius writes to
him of the consolation caused by the progress of the Church
in America. — Visit to Rome in 1908. — The Pope's sympathy
with him in an illness in Rome. — Preaches in Westminster
Cathedral at the London Eucharistic Congress on the ties
between English and American Catholics. — Welcomed again
on his return to Baltimore.
XXXVII Checking the Tide of Socialism 670-(&2
Apprehensions of Cardinal Gibbons stirred by the sudden
increase in the Socialist vote in America in 1904. — Condemna-
tion of Socialism by Popes. — Gibbons delivers a sermon
against it, a short time before the celebration of the centenary
of the Baltimore Cathedral and his own silver jubilee as
Archbishop. — The celebration takes the form of a massing of
the Church's influence in America against Socialism. — Deliv-
erances by Archbishops Glennon and Ryan. — Forces arrayed
against the growth of Socialism among foreigners within the
Catholic fold.
XXXVIII Sympathy with French Catholics .... 684-687
Gibbons deplores excesses committed in France during the
agitation over the passage and application of the Law of
Associations. — Ties between French and American Catholics
dating from Colonial times. — American bishops request
Gibbons to address a letter to the Catholics of France ex-
pressing sympathy and hopes for better conditions ; he con-
trasts in the letter the liberty and protection of religion in
America with the situation in France. — Reply of Cardinal
Richard. — Cardinal Gibbons, in a public statement later, cites
anti-Christian propaganda by extremist supporters of the
French legislation.
XXXIX Civic Honors at Jubilee 688-710
Unprecedented civic demonstration in honor of Gibbons at the
celebration of his silver jubilee as Cardinal and his golden
jubilee as priest. — Twenty thousand persons acclaim him in
the largest hall in Baltimore. — Addresses paying tribute to his
services to the nation, the State and the city and to world wel-
fare made by President Taft, ex-President Roosevelt, Vice-
President Sherman, Senator Root, Speaker Clark, of the
House of Representatives, British Ambassador Bryce, the
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER PAGE
Governor of Maryland, the Mayor of Baltimore and others.—
The Cardinal, in responding, testifies anew to his faith in his
country, and to the essentially religious nature of its people,"
exhorting also the duty of loyalty to its constituted authori-
ties.— Public comments on the demonstration.
XL The Hierarchy's Plaudits 7i 1-739
Great religious celebration held to mark the Gibbons jubilee.
—The Cardinal expresses agreement with non-Catholic oppo-
sition to decreeing a municipal holiday in honor of the
church celebration and expresses thanks for the holiday that
had been decreed in honor of the civic celebration of his
jubilee. — In a sermon a week before the religious observance,
he opposes the then proposed constitutional amendments for
the election of United States Senators by popular vote and
the initiative, referendum and recall of public officers. — Lays
the cornerstone of Gibbons Hall at the Catholic University —
Large gathering of prelates at the main celebration in the
Baltimore Cathedral. — Tributes to the Cardinal by Arch-
bishops Glennon and Blenk.
XLI Some Events of Later Years 740-760
Sermon of Gibbons as the great Baltimore fire of 1904 began
indicated a vein of the prophetic. — Other instances of the
same quality. — Determined efforts to retrieve the Catholic
University's loss in the Waggaman failure. — Silver anniver-
sary of the University. — Exhortations to civic duty. — Over-
come by the financial indiscretions of a priest, whose debts
he pledges himself to pay. — Debate in published articles with
Thomas A. Edison on Immortality. — Shock at the death of
Archbishop Ryan. — His last meeting with Pius X. — Guest of
King Albert in Brussels. — Golden Jubilee o.f his episcopate. —
Letter from Benedict XV and visits from delegations of
English, French and Belgian Catholics.
XLII Manifold Public Relations 761-778
Gibbons' estimate of individual civic responsibility in Ameri-
can life. — His citizenship accepted as a national model. — His
opinions expressed regardless of the popular trend. — Inde-
pendent in politics. — Offers prayer at national nominating con-
ventions of both the leading political parties. — Influence in
preventing American abandonment of the Philippines in 1913.
— Deplores revolutionary excesses in Mexico. — Aids refugee
priests and nuns from that country. — Address at Third Na-
tional Peace Congress. — Help in overthrowing the Louisiana
lottery. — Commendation by Lyman Abbott.
XLIII Prohibitign and Woman Suffrage 779-788
Services of Cardinal Gibbons to the cause of temperance in
the use of liquor. — He opposes national prohibition as unen-
Vlll
CONTENTS
forceable but favors local option. — Warns against the enact-
ment of a State prohibition bill in Maryland. — Courage of his
public utterances on the question. — He opposes general suf-
frage for women but favors municipal suffrage for women
who own property. — Fears of the impairment of woman's in-
fluence in the home by political activity. — Exalts motherhood.
— Letter to the Congress of Mothers. — He combats the
divorce evil and "race suicide."
XLIV Wide Scope as Citizen 789-803
Institution of the annual Pan-American Thanksgiving Mass
in Washington. — Wilson the last of many Presidents with
whom Gibbons came in contact at the White House. — Their
first meeting and subsequent cooperation in the World War.
— Article in the North American Review on the harmony of
the Catholic faith with American institutions. — Offers prayer
at the dedication of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. —
Gratitude of negroes for his help. — Denunciation of lynching.
— Opposition to educational requirement for immigrants. —
Letter on the persecution of Jews in parts of Europe. —
Vigorous criticisms of national faults. — Denunciation of
ballot frauds.
XLV Stress of the World War 804-829
Invasion of Belgium by the German armies begins soon after
Gibbons' eightieth birthday. — Expresses the hope that
America may avoid being involved in the war. — Death of
Pius X, August 20, 1914. — Gibbons arrives in Rome too late
to vote in the ensuing Conclave. — Consultations with Bene-
dict XV. — Horror at the sinking of the Lusitania. — Gibbons
the medium of communications between Benedict XV and
President Wilson on steps for bringing world peace. — When
America enters the war, the Archbishops, on his proposal,
pledge their active cooperation in the national effort. —
National Catholic War Council organizes under his presi-
dency to coordinate Catholic war activities. — Help to Liberty
Loans. — Defends Benedict XV's course in the war. — Inde-
fatigable services to the country in many ways during the
conflict.
XLVI After the Armistice 830^42
Gibbons declares that Catholic pledges of support to the
Government in the war have been fulfilled. — lletter urging
President Wilson to visit the Pope. — The President's confer-
ence with Benedict XV. — Gibbons' interest in the problems
of reconstruction. — Warning against activities by foreign
radicals in the United States. — Cardinal Mercier his guest in
Baltimore. — Help to Belgian relief movements. — Pastoral
letter by the hierarchy on reconstruction. — Sermon of Gibbons
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER PAGE
on America as the Good Samaritan of Europe. — Declares his
support of the League of Nations. — Expresses confidence in
the stability of America under the new conditions.
XLVII Characteristics as a Preacher 843-872
Novel character of the congregations at the Baltimore Cathe-
dral when Cardinal Gibbons preached. — Large proportion of
non-Catholics present. — Overflowing crowds. — His appearance
in the pulpit. — Methods of delivering sermons. — Simplicity
of utterance designed to appeal to the greatest number. — Re-
markable memory which enabled him to deliver prepared ser-
mons without reference to manuscript. — Impressions pro-
duced on the hearer. — The training of his voice enforced by
ill health in early life. — Selection of topics of general appeal
for sermons. — Religious themes sometimes accompanied by
their direct application to pending public questions. — Extracts
from some of his sermons which illustrated his ideals as a
preacher.
XLVIII Literary Tastes and Labors 873-903
Part of every night spent by Gibbons at home devoted to
reading in his study when possible. — An English purist in
style and preference. — Wide range of reading. — Diverted at
times by novels. — Fondness for poetry. — Extensive scanning
of newspapers and magazines. — His views on simplicity of
literary style. — "The Faith of Our Fathers" developed from
his experiences in North Carolina. — Its circulation probably
greater than that of any other religious book after the Bible.
— His surprise at its popularity. — "Our Christian Heritage"
professedly non-sectarian. — Its purpose to defend fundamen-
tal truths. — References in the book to current political and
social questions. — "The Ambassador of Christ" the fruit of
his zeal for training priests. — "Discourses and Sermons." —
"A Retrospect of Fifty Years."
XLIX Personality and Private Life 904-935
Versatility of Cardinal Gibbons. — His remarkable vitality
despite a tendency to some forms of physical weakness. —
Simple life at the archiepiscopal residence. — Daily routine. —
Personality shown in his correspondence. — Extensive benevo-
lences kept secret even from his intimates. — Sometimes em-
barrassed for lack of money despite large revenue from his
books. — Refusal of personal gifts. — Incidents of his public
audiences. — Extraordinarily large acquaintance. — Sparing in
diet. — Three and a half to four hours daily spent in religious
devotions. — Impressions of him as recorded by L'Abbe Klein.
— New Year receptions. — Found "more of pain than pleasure"
in public plaudits. — Subject of many articles in the press.
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
L Social Habits — Friendships 936-946
Cardinal Gibbons' remarkable social graces. — "I dine out be-
cause Christ dined out." — Center of attention at social gather-
ings.— His habit of leaving early in the evening. — Beloved by
young people. — Abstemious at all times. — Friendships with
Monsignor McManus, Michael Jenkins and Joseph Frieden-
wald. — His grief at the death of Jenkins. — Happiness in
ecclesiastical life placed above success that might have come
to him in material affairs. — Formidable when aroused by
danger to his greater purposes.
LI Relations with Protestants 947-955
Resolute avoidance of all acts and utterances that might imply
intolerance. — Protestant ministers and laymen among his
warmest personal friends. — Precedence accorded to him in
gatherings attended by Protestant churchmen, although he
never sought it. — His rule on such occasions. — Views on
accepting an invitation to a civic meeting in a Methodist
church. — Criticism of his attitude in the Congo controversy
resented by Protestant ministers. — Public tributes to him by
non-Catholics. — Acts of kindness and help to persons of
other creeds. — His purpose to bestow the greatest service
where the need was greatest.
LII Health and Recreations 956-965
Cardinal Gibbons "always at the work bench and too busy to
be sick." — Work at high pressure in periods of impaired
health. — Digestion his physical barometer. — Avoided medi-
cine except as a last resort. — Organically sound and possessed
of marvellous recuperative power. — Benefited by regular
exercise in the open air. — Conversations on his health. —
Strong eyesight even in age. — Periods of recuperation at the
Shriver homes. — Visits to Spring Lake, N. J., and South-
ampton, L. I. — Summary of his labors in his 78th year. —
His opposition to the appointment of a coadjutor. — His life
imperiled by a driving accident.
LIII Anecdotes and Incidents 966-982
The exceptionally large number of the anecdotes told of
Cardinal Gibbons due chiefly to the strength and versatility
of his personality. — His playfulness with children. — Moods
with altar boys. — Incidents of his interest in waifs. — Forgives
offenders at St. Mary's Industrial School. — Acts as Santa
Claus at an orphan asylum. — Hears the confessions of an im-
portunate husband and wife. — Awe inspired in a Maryland
family by his presence as a guest. — Rejoinder to Senator
Bayard on pulpit and political oratory. — Fondness for the
hymn "Lead, Kindly Light." — Other anecdotes.
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER PACK
LIV Elements of Greatness 983-1007
Cardinal Gibbons often called great during his life time. —
Elements of sublimity in his character. — Blended strength
and simplicity. — Steadfastness and courage in the face of
great obstacles. — Leo XIII, Gibbons and Manning the domi-
nant figures in the Church during a critical period in world
evolution. — Their liberal tendencies. — Gibbons' work in allay-
ing intolerance concerning religion. — National gain through
his victory for Americanism in the Church. — His help to the
cause of labor a potent influence throughout the world. —
Conspicuous services as a reformer and in many other direc-
tions.— Manifestations of his powerful personality.
LV Gifts as a Leader 100S-1023
Cardinal Gibbons as a churchman. — The lawgiver of the
Catholic Church in America through his wort in the guidance
of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. — Permanent and
fruitful character of the Council's decrees. — Qualities of
statesmanship exercised by him within and without the
Church. — Unique position as the mentor of his fellow
countrymen. — His popularity as an author. — Faculties of
intuitive perception. — Intellectual processes. — Remarkable ef-
fects produced upon crowds and individuals by the dominant
force of his character.
LVI Last Illness and Death 1024-1046
Many warnings to lessen his labors in advanced age are
ignored. — Remarkable vitality after passing the age of 80
years. — Monthly sermons not discontinued until pronounced
signs of growing weakness appeared. — Reflections on his last
birthday. — Collapse in church at Havre de Grace, Md.,
November 7, 1920. — Trip to Emmitsburg, Md., accompanied
by further alarming symptoms. — Prostrated in bed at the
Shriver home.— His last Christmas.— Sympathy from the
Pope, President Wilson and others. — Carried back to the
archiepiscopal house. — Gradual failure of vital powers. —
Resignation in suffering.— Final messages.— Death on March
24, 1921. ,
LVII The Nation's Homage . 1047-1057
Tributes to Cardinal Gibbons in America and abroad at his
death.— Expressions by the Pope, President Harding, ex-
President Taft, Cardinal O'Connell and others.— Public
honors in Maryland and Baltimore.— Praise from Protestant
and Jewish ministers.— Catholic prelates mourn his joss as
that of a great leader. — Editorials in newspapers estimating
his services to religion, America and the world.
xll CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
LVIII Funeral of Cardinal Gibbons 1058-1068
Throngs at the Baltimore Cathedral while the body lay in
state. — Services held there during the week following his
death. — The funeral. — National, state, municipal and foreign
representatives present. — Great gathering of the Hierarchy. —
Archbishop Glennon's sermon tracing Gibbons' power to quali-
ties in his inner self. — His body placed in the crypt beneath
the Cathedral with those of other Archbishops. — A considera-
tion of the place which Cardinal Gibbons filled in the Church
and the world.
Bibliography 1069
General Index ................. 1075
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME II
FACING PAGE
The Archiepiscopal Residence, Baltimore 591
Cardinal Gibbons lived in this house as Archbishop Spalding's
secretary, 1865-68, and as Archbishop, 1877-1921.
Cardinal Gibbons' Study 713
The portrait above the desk is that of St. Philip Neri.
Cardinal Gibbons Offering Prayer at the Presentation of a
SwoRD to Admiral Dewey in Washington, October 3RD, 1899 . 791
President McKinley and the Admiral are the other two
figures shown.
Facsimile of Cardinal Gibbons' Handwriting 888
Extract from "Our Christian Heritage."
Cardinal Gibbons Ready for a Walk 960
He is shown seated with Bishop O'Connell, of Richmond,
on the porch of the residence of B. Frank Shriver at Union
Mills, Md. The photograph was taken in 1918.
Cardinal Gibbons on His 85TH Birthday 834
Photograph taken in the garden of the residence of T. Her-
bert Shriver, Union Mills, Md.
Cardinal Gibbons in the Last of Many National Ecclesi-
astical Ceremonies over Which He Presided 1028
This photograph was taken at the laying of the cornerstone
of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the
grounds of the Catholic University of America, Sept. 23,
1920. (Copyright, Harris and Ewing.)
Cardinal Gibbons as He Was Last Remembered 103 1
From the portrait by Marie de Ford Keller, presented by
the Cardinal to Miss Mary O. Shriver, Dec. 16th, 1920.
VOLUME II
LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE PROVIDENTIAL LEADER
Gibbons' prestige was nearing the pinnacle abroad as
well as at home when the silver jubilee of his own epis-
copacy was celebrated at the Baltimore Cathedral Oc-
tober 18, 1893. The actual anniversary was August 16;
but the celebration had been deferred in compliance with
the wishes of a number of prelates living at a distance
who desired to be present.
In no diocese of the world, perhaps, were the clergy
more warmly, in a personal sense, devoted to their ecclesi-
astical superior than in Baltimore. A committee of
priests took the arrangements in charge in June, and is-
sued a circular letter announcing that a testimonial of
their devotion would be presented to the Cardinal. In
this circular they said :
"By his wise and progressive principles he has raised
the Church before the American public to a position of
which we may be justly proud. In the administration
of the archdiocese he has displayed all the characteristics
of the Good Shepherd ; and he has ever been united to the
clergy and his people by the closest bonds of devotion and
love. To his priests he has been, indeed, the amiable and
sympathetic elder brother, always ready to receive, to
counsel, and to assist them in the great responsibilities of
their vocation."
585
686 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Gibbons himself celebrated Mass on the day of the
celebration, and Archbishop Corrigan preached in the
presence of Archbishop Satolli and a large gathering of
the Hierarchy. At the end of the sermon a letter from
the Pope conveying his affectionate congratulations was
read. In the same year Leo had enjoyed the extraordi-
nary distinction of celebrating the golden jubilee of his
own episcopate, and he expressed his fervent hope that
the same privilege might be granted to Gibbons.^ Ac-
companying the letter Leo sent as a gift a massive
jeweled design bearing a profile miniature of the great
bronze statue of St. Peter in Rome, representing him as
seated upon a throne blessing the whole world. This
gift was brought from Rome by the Rev. Frederick Z.
Rooker, Vice-rector of the American College.
The personal note predominated in the afternoon of
the same day at a dinner at St. Mary's Seminary, at which
the priests of the archdiocese presented an address to Gih-i
bons. The venerable Mgr. McColgan, the Vicar Gen-
eral, took the occasion to recall that a Protestant who
had watched the future Cardinal as a young pastor going
from house to house, visiting the poor and ministering to
the sick, had predicted that he would some day become a
great man.
Gibbons replied in terms of affection, attributing the
great growth of the Church in the diocese to the work
of the clergy, among whom in all the years of his epis-
copate he had not known a single case of insubordination.
Addresses were made by Mgr. Nugent, of Liverpool, who
* Letter of Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons, August 30, 1893; Cathedral
Archives, Baltimore.
THE PROVroENTIAL LEADER 587
had been sent to convey the congratulations of Cardinal
Vaughan, and by Father Ring, who came as a representa-
tive of Cardinal Logue.
The celebration drew from Archbishop Ireland, at a
vesper service in the Cathedral on that day, one of the
most stirring sermons which ever came from the lips of
that warrior prelate; he entitled it "The Church and the
Age." He hailed Leo as the "Providential Pope" and
Gibbons as the "Providential Archbishop." No one knew
better than he what the leadership of Gibbons had meant
to the Church in America. No one shared more fervently
than he the primary aims that had inspired Gibbons to
his greatest efforts. He said :
"Be it my coveted privilege to honor a man among
men. The record of the Cardinal Archbishop of Balti-
more! I speak of it with pride and exultation; it is the
record I should have traced for my ideal Bishop and
leader of men in these solemn times through which the
Church is passing."
The Archbishop proceeded :
"There is discord between the age and the Church. We
recall the fact with sorrow. The interests of society and
religion suffer where misunderstanding and separation
exist. The fault lies with the age and with the Church,
or rather, with statesmen of the age and statesmen of the
Church. Age and Church, rightly apprehended, are in
no manner at war. . . .
"I indicate the opportunity for the great and singular
churchman; his work is to bridge the deep valley sepa-
rating the age from the Church. . . . What the Church
at any time was, certain people hold she ever must be;
they do her much harm, making her rigid and unbending.
688 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
incapable of adapting herself to new and changing sur-
roundings. The Church, created by Christ for all ages,
lives in every age and puts on the dress of every one."
The Archbishop turned to note the characteristics of
the age. It was ambitious for knowledge. It was an age
of liberty, civil and political, and of democracy. It was
an era of social cravings for justice to all men. He found
in this the best opportunity for Catholic sympathy and
effort. He continued:
"How oft in past years have I thanked God that in
this latter quarter of the nineteenth century Cardinal
Gibbons has been given to us as a primate, a leader, a
Catholic of Catholics, an American of Americans, a
Bishop of his age and of his country; he is to America
what Leo is to all Christendom. Aye, far beyond Amer-
ica does his influence go. Men are not confined by
frontier lines, and Gibbons is European as Manning was
American.
"A particular mission is reserved to the American Car-
dinal. The Church and the age fight their battles with
especial intensity in America. America is watched. The
prelate who in America is the representative of the union
of Church and age is watched. His leadership guides
the combatants the world over. The name of Cardinal
Gibbons lights up the pages of nearly every European
book which treats of modem social and political ques-
tions. The ripplings of his influence cross the threshold
of the Vatican.
'The work of Cardinal Gibbons forms an epoch in the
history of the Church in America. He has made known,
as no one before him did, the Church to the people of
America. He has demonstrated the fitness of the Church
for America, the natural alliance existing between the
Church and the freedom-giving democratic institutions
THE PROVIDENTIAL LEADER 589
of this country. Through his action the scales have fallen
from the eyes of non-Catholics — prejudices have van-
ished. He, the great churchman, is the great citizen;
Church and country unite in him, and the magnetism of
the union pervades the whole land, teaching laggard
Catholics to love America, teaching well disposed non-
Catholics to trust the Church.
"How noble the mission which Heaven has assigned
to him ; how well it has been followed out ! . . . He is
large-minded. His vision can not be narrowed to a one-
sided consideration of men or things. He is large-
hearted. His sympathies are limited by the frontiers of
humanity; careless of self, he gives his best activities to
the good of others. He is ready for every noble work
• — patriotic, intellectual, social, philanthropic, as well as
religious; and in the prosecution of these he joins hands
with the laborer and the capitalist, with the white man
and the black man, with the Catholic, the Protestant and
the Jew. He is brave. He has the courage to speak and
to act in accordance with his convictions. . . . Cardinal
Gibbons, the most outspoken of Catholics, the most loyal
co-laborer of the Pope of Rome, is the American of
Americans !"
Archbishop Redwood, who had traveled half of the
earth's circumference from his home in New Zealand,
was the celebrant at the vesper service.
The range of Gibbons had been so far outside his
ecclesiastical duties in serving his fellow-men that it was
felt that the celebration would be incomplete without a
recognition of the civic status which he had attained in
both the nation and the State. On the day following the
services at the Cathedral, a banquet was held in his honor
at the Catholic Club of Baltimore, which was attended
by Vice-President Stevenson, Senator Gorman, of Mary-
690 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
land, Mayor Latrobe, of Baltimore, and other men of
prominence in public life. A letter from President Cleve-
land conveying his felicitations was read, and a number
of addresses from organizations in the diocese were
presented.
Gibbons, when called upon to address the gathering,
said that he was thankful for two things — that he had
Christ for his instructor and guide, and that he had the
privilege of being bom in and raised as a citizen of the
United States, a citizen of Maryland, of Baltimore. In
no country on earth had a difficult problem been better
solved than in America — that of maintaining harmonious
relations between Church and State. Here the Church
and State ran in parallel lines and neither conflicted with
the other. The Church upheld the State; religion edu-
cated the State and proclaimed the sanctity of the laws.
Religion taught the virtue of obedience and respect for
civil laws by teaching that obedience to civil authorities
was not servile homage but the homage of freemen to
God Himself. The Cardinal proceeded:
"For my part, I would be sorry to see the relations of
Church and State any closer than they are at present ; for,
if the civil authority built our churches or subsidized our
clergy, they might want to have something to say as to
the doctrines we teach, and we believe that the Gospel
should be free. I thank God that we have religious lib-
erty.
"Foreign governments, while recognizing the liberties
we enjoy, do not recognize our strength. The first thing
that strikes a foreigner on reaching our shores is the ab-
sence of soldiers such as he is accustomed to see abroad;
but we are strong in the intelligence of the people; we
THE PROVIDENTIAL LEADER 591
are strong in the patriotism that in a few hours would
transform every citizen into a brave and valiant soldier.
"Another mistake is made in supposing that, because
there is no union here between Church and State, we are
not a religious people. I maintain that no country in the
world has a stronger religious basis than the United
States. Our common law is taken from the common law
of England, which is thoroughly permeated with the
spirit of Christianity. Where is the Christian Sabbath
better observed than here*? The proceedings of the Na-
tional and State legislatures are opened with prayer; and
still another evidence of our respect and regard for re-
ligion is the fact of our setting apart a day in each year
for special thanksgiving, the President of the United
States and the Governors of States calling upon the peo-
ple, by proclamation, to return thanks for the blessings
they have enjoyed."
Gibbons closed by expressing the fervent hope that re-
ligion and patriotism might ever characterize the Ameri-
can people."
For weeks delegations from the diocese continued to
present gifts and addresses to Gibbons at his residence.
In November a series of public celebrations in honor of
the jubilee was held in Washington, where next to his
own Baltimore he was better known personally to large
numbers of people than in any other city.
The death of Cardinal Manning January 12, 1892, re-
moved one of three men who more than any others had
been influential in guiding the external policies of the
Church in the direction of liberalism in the last part of
the nineteenth century; the others were Leo XIII and
Gibbons. Manning's death profoundly affected the
'Catholic Mirror, October 21, 1893.
692 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Baltimore Cardinal, who had found in him, next to Leo,
his principal support in striving for the goals which they
all wished to reach. Manning was a warm admirer of
Gibbons and the American Cardinal neglected no oppor-
tunity to express his high esteem for his English col-
league. He believed that, had Manning remained in the
Church of England, he would have been elevated to the
See of Canterbury; or, had his activities been exercised in
secular fields, he might have been a Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer as distinguished as Gladstone, a philanthropist
as great as Wilberforce, or a temperance apostle as suc-
cessful as Father Mathew.
Both of these Cardinals were in thorough sympathy
with the wants and legitimate aspirations of men, espe-
cially those upon whom conditions of poverty and social
injustice weighed. They went outside the arena of the-
ology to grapple with social questions, believing that re-
ligion impelled them to open the hearts of men to its
benign influences by displaying the Church as the cham-
pion of justice to all.
It was fortunate that the influence of Gibbons and
Manning was exercised in English speaking countries,
which are naturally ready to respond to liberal ideas.
Sustained as they were by Leo, reenforced by his brilliant
Secretary of State, Rampolla, the fruits of their work,
in some important particulars, extended over the whole
civilized world.
There were traits which these men seemed to share
almost equally. All of them possessed a boldness of
mental conception which scarcely fell short of prophecy.
They seemed at times to live in years to come more than
THE PROVIDENTIAL LEADER 593
in the present, and their thoughts were sometimes incom-
prehensible to men whose views and outlook were cir-
cumscribed by conditions immediately surrounding them.
In the case of Gibbons it was noticeable that not a few
of his judgments which appeared to be defective, even to
the point of exciting grave warnings on the part of others,
were sustained by subsequent developments which those
who warned him had not foreseen. Persons who were in
intimate touch with him and accustomed to be consulted
about his decisions, or to share in their execution, finally
came to repose in him a confidence in which they were
disposed to silence totally their own judgment. They
accepted his leadership as so far above their own stand-
ards that they did not question it. In his long life it was
possible to get a sweeping perspective of what he sought
to do and what he accomplished. He lived to see the
fruition of every one of his great aims ; and some advisers
who had been disposed to urge him to beware, especially
when his boldness seemed to discard prudence, were con-
founded in judgment.
Leo and Manning had complete confidence in Gibbons
based on the natural parallel that always seemed to exist
between their ideas. All of them were deep students of
theology and philosophy, the fruits of which were espe-
cially evident in the great encyclicals of Leo, which re-
mained as an invaluable guide for the Church after his
time ; but their creed was action and service, rather than
philosophy or logic. They felt that men must be helped
by acts rather than thoughts. It was not as useful in
their eyes to reveal some new process of the mind as to
initiate some new labor which assuaged the ills of hu-
594 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
manity. Religion was for all of them the background of
every action, but they preferred to exemplify religion
through its fruits, rather than in the stages in which those
fruits were produced.
These three were ready to anticipate and interpret the
great economic changes in their time. They saw that the
progress of industry and invention in the nineteenth cen-
tury had given a new future to society. Combined with
this, either as a forerunner or as an expression of it, was
the development of free political institutions. They did
not wish the captains of religion to linger in an atmo-
sphere of the eighteenth century, when the atmosphere
of the political and the material world upon which their
efforts were bestowed had changed so greatly. They were
alike in holding firmly the foundations of the faith, but
they gave it a new meaning in the eyes of new generations
which could not see the vista as their fathers had seen it.
Gibbons was greatly moved by the loss of Manning's
services to the Church, to the world and to himself; but
the spirit of Manning lived in Leo and the work could go
on. Thoughts such as these men planted could not perish.
They had begun too much to have it undone by others.
CHAPTER XXXIV
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS
The cause of international peace was especially dear
to the heart of Gibbons. He was not content to speak
and write for it, or, in fact, for any cause that appealed
to him with exceptional force ; he wished to translate all
of his stronger sentiments into action, for that was the
code of his life. Generalities never satisfied him, nor easy
conceptions of duty. His conscience could not be put at
rest by signing his name to a document and leaving to
others the work of giving it effectiveness.
Although he was essentially a combatant all his life,
he was a combatant in the fields of truth and reason.
Decisions by physical force of controversies between na-
tions appalled him. War he regarded as a last resort for
defense, or for preventing a greater evil. In his own
country his wish was to see all vital questions decided
by the ballot; and among nations he was an earnest
worker for arbitration.
When the United States and Great Britain came peril-
ously near an irreconcilable difference of view over the
Venezuela boundary dispute in 1895, Gibbons sustained
President Cleveland in insisting upon arbitration of the
boundary. He wrote a letter to the President commend-
595
596 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ing his stand and the result of it after a settlement had
been effected. The letter was:
"Cardinal's Residence,
"408 N. Charles St.,
"Baltimore.
"November 13, 1896.
"My dear Mr. President:
"Allow me to congratulate you on the honorable and
happy termination of the Venezuelan difficulty. The
opportuneness and wisdom of your message are now rec-
ognized and applauded, though at the time of its publi-
cation it raised a storm.
"The amicable adjustment of this international ques-
tion is a fitting crown to your second term of administra-
tion.
"Faithfully yrs.
"J. Card. Gibbons."
"Grover Cleveland,
''President of the United States."
When Great Britain accepted arbitration. Gibbons
felt that the conspicuous illustration of the benefits of
reason rather than war in adjusting international con-
troversies could not fail of effect upon the world at
large. His chief concern was as to whether the effect
would be more than merely temporary; and when the
movement for a permanent treaty of arbitration between
the United States and Great Britain was started, follow-
ing the adjustment of the Venezuela difference, he wel-
comed the opportunity to lend it his heartiest support.
On Easter Sunday, 1896, he joined Cardinals Logue,
of Ireland, and Vaughan, of England, the representatives
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 597
of the English speaking peoples in the Sacred College, in
an appeal in behalf of a permanent tribunal of arbitra-
tion. He regretted that the United States government
was not then ready to take a pronounced position in
favor of a permanent international court ; but the appeal
could not be lost upon the statesmen of the world, be-
cause it had the effect of arraying English speaking
Catholics on the side of this great and humane advance.
The text * of the appeal was :
^'An appeal by the American^ Irish and English Car-
dinals in behalf of a permanent tribunal of arbitration.
"We, the undersigned Cardinals, representatives of the
Catholic Church in our respective countries, invite all
who hear our voices to cooperate in the formation of a
public opinion which shall demand the establishment of
a permanent tribunal of arbitration as a rational sub-
stitute among the English-speaking races for a resort to
the bloody arbitration of war.
"We are well aware that such a project is beset with
practical difficulties. We believe that they will not prove
to be insuperable if the desire to overcome them be genu-
ine and general. Such a court existed for centuries when
the nations of Christendom were united in one faith.
And have we not seen nations appeal to that same court
for its judgment in our own day*?
"The establishment of a permanent tribunal, com-
posed, maybe, of trusted representatives of each sover-
eign nation, with power to nominate judges and umpires,
according to the nature of the differences that arise, and
a common acceptance of general principles defining and
limiting the jurisdiction and subject-matter of such a
tribunal, would create new guarantees of peace that could
not fail to influence the whole of Christendom.
' Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.
698 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Such an international court of arbitration would
form a second line of defence, to be called into requisition
only after the ordinary resources of diplomacy had been
exhausted. It would, at least, postpone the outbreak of
hostilities until reason and common sense had formally
pronounced their last word.
"This is a matter of which the constitution and pro-
cedure must be settled by governments. But as govern-
ments are becoming more and more identified with the as-
pirations and moulded by the desires of the people, an
appeal in the first instance must be addressed to the peo-
ple.
"We do not hesitate on our part to lift up our united
voices and proclaim to all who are accustomed to hearken
to our counsels that it is a sign of a Divine influence at
work in their midst when nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more
in war, (Isaiah, ii, 4,) for it was written for a future
time: 'Come ye and behold the work of the Lord, what
wonders He hath done upon the earth, making wars to
cease even to the end of the earth.' (Psalms, xvi, 9.)
"Others may base their appeal upon motives which
touch your worldly interests, your prosperity, your world-
wide influence and authority in the affairs of men. The
Catholic Church recognizes the legitimate force of such
motives in the natural order and blesses whatever tends
to the real progress and elevation of the race.
"But our main ground of appeal rests upon the known
character and will of the Prince of Peace, the Living
Founder, the Divine Head of Christendom. It was He
who declared that love for the brotherhood is a second
commandment to the people. 'Blessed,' said He, 'are the
peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of
God.' (Matt, v, 9.)
"We therefore earnestly invite all to unite with us in
pressing their convictions and desires upon their respective
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 599
governments by means of petitions and such other meas-
ures as are constitutional.
"James Cardinal Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore.
"Michael Cardinal Logue,
"Archbishop of Armagh,
"Primate of All Ireland.
"Herbert Cardinal Vaughan,
"Archbishop of Westminster."
In a sermon on international peace at the Baltimore
Cathedral Gibbons voiced the faith that was in him,
saying :
"Christ's mission on earth was to establish a triple
peace in the hearts of men — peace with God by the ob-
servance of his commandments; peace with our fellow
men by the practise of justice and charity; and peace
within our own breasts by keeping our passions subject to
reason and our reason in harmony with the Divine Law."
He proceeded to say that arbitration in the settlement
of international disputes was a system which "while pro-
tecting the rights of the weak will not wound or humiliate
the national pride of the strong, since it does not at-
tempt to trench on the sovereignty or autonomy of the
mightier power." He added :
"Let us cherish the hope that the day is not far off
when the reign of the Prince of Peace shall be firmly
established on the earth and the spirit of the gospel will
so far sway the minds and hearts of rulers and cabinets
that international disputes will be decided not by stand-
ing armies but by permanent courts of arbitration — when
they will be settled not on the battlefield but in the halls
of conciliation."
600 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Scarcely two years passed before he was put to the test
to defend his principles in another period of stress. No
American felt more acutely than he, when the battleship
Maine was blown up in Havana harbor February 15,
1898, that in all probability it would mean a war be-
tween his country and Spain. He lost no time in taking
a positive stand against such a war, except as a last resort
from which there could be no honorable escape.
For the good name of humanity, he hoped and believed
that the explosion was caused by an accident, and in that
case Spain could not be held responsible for it; neither,
he declared, was Spain to blame if a Cuban had caused
the fearful loss of life in order to embroil the United
States in war with Spain. Even if some fanatical Span-
iard had perpetrated the crime, he could see no necessity
for war. Active hostilities could only be warranted, he
maintained, if evidence could be produced that the Span-
ish government had connived at the explosion; but he
refused to believe, and held that no sane man could be-
lieve, that a chivalric Christian nation would be guilty
of such inhumanity.
When the United States government appointed a com-
mission to investigate the cause of the disaster, he pub-
licly advised that the people should await the verdict
calmly and dispassionately and should not anticipate it.
In this the ground which he took was the same as that
of the President and the other principal officials who
exercised authority in America, for all of them felt that
it was a time for the utmost moderation by those directly
responsible for the outcome of the crisis.^
'Lodge, The War luith Spain, p. 29.
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 601
The marked superiority of the military resources of
America over those of Spain was to Gibbons an addi-
tional reason for moderation. He felt, and frequently
expressed the thought both then and on other occasions,
that the record of America in the family of nations was,
on the whole, a record of magnanimity and justice. The
unequal conflict which he foresaw as probable appeared
to him to mean merely a waste of life. He felt that all
the important results which would flow from it could be
accomplished by peaceful means.
Throughout the trying period while the American in-
quiry on the Maine explosion was in progress he upheld
the conduct of the authorities as worthy of all praise. A
solemn requiem Mass for the officers and sailors who
had lost their lives in the explosion was offered by
his direction in the Baltimore Cathedral on February 28.
Gibbons preached and expressed the opinion that it was
out of the question to believe that Spain was responsible
for the disaster. He said:
"We do not realize how ardently we love our country
until some crisis occurs which awakens our devotion to
her and arouses our admiration and gratitude for those
who have died in her service. Such a crisis has quite
recently occurred; for we have assembled to assist at the
holy sacrifice offered up for the souls of the brave officers
and men who have lost their lives at the post of duty.
Too much praise can not be bestowed on the President,
his Cabinet, and particularly on the Secretary of the
Navy and his able assistants, as well as on the Houses of
Congress, for the calmness and tranquillity, the self-con-
trol and the self-possession which they have exhibited
during the fearful ordeal through which the country has
602 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
been passing in the last few days. It needed only a spark
to kindle a great conflagration, and the patient and dig-
nified bearing of the Executive and Legislative bodies is
all the more commendable in view of the mischievous
and intemperate utterances of some sensational papers.
"This nation is too brave, too strong and too just to
engage in an unrighteous or precipitate war. Let us re-
member that the eyes of the world are upon us, whose
judgment we can not despise, and that we will gain more
applause and credit for ourselves by calm deliberation
than by recourse to arms. 'Thrice is he armed who hath
his quarrel just.' "
He gave his full support to a movement which was
started in Baltimore to contribute to a fund for a memo-
rial to the Maine's dead. When a meeting was held at the
City Hall to arrange a public demonstration in aid of the
fund, he accepted an invitation to act as a member of the
committee in charge of it.
On Palm Sunday, April 3, when sermons were deliv-
ered throughout the country by ministers of all denomi-
nations urging the people to be calm, Gibbons again oc-
cupied the pulpit of the Cathedral, joining in the na-
tional movement to invoke the principles of religion in
the deliberations upon the grave decision that was then
soon to be made. He said :
"On this day when we commemorate the entrance of
the Lord of Peace into Jerusalem, let us implore Him
that He will so guide the minds and hearts of the Presi-
dent and members of Congress ; that He will so direct the
counsels of Spain ; that He may inspire both nations with
a happy solution of the problem which confronts us, a
solution honorable to both nations, so that the clouds of
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 603
war may be dispelled and the blessings of peace may be
preserved."
Regarding the Pope as the Vicar on earth of the Prince
of Peace, he rejoiced when Cardinal Rampolla, acting
in behalf of Leo XIII, formally offered mediation April
2.^ In America, Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ire-
land were especially active in public support of this plan.
Spain accepted the offer, replying to Rampolla as fol-
lows:
"The moment the United States Government is dis-
posed to accept the aid of the Pope, the Queen of Spain
and her Government will gladly accept his mediation;
and in order to facilitate the high mission of peace and
concord which his Holiness is attempting, promise fur-
ther to accept the proposal that the Holy Father shall
formulate a suspension of hostilities ; informing his Holi-
ness that, for the honor of Spain, it is proper that a truce
should be accompanied by the retirement of the Ameri-
can squadron from the waters of the Antilles, in order
that the North American Republic may also show its
purpose not to support, voluntarily or involuntarily, the
insurrection in Cuba."
In the United States the war feeling had become so
inflamed that mediation proved to be impossible. Gib-
bons was not surprised when, in the excited temper of the
time, the Papal action was assailed in some quarters as
an attempt at interference. When the situation was
near the point of greatest tension, the Spanish Minister
of Foreign Affairs made the unfortunate statement that
Papal mediation came at the suggestion of President
'Spanish Diplomatic Correspondence and Documents, 1896-1900.
604 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
McKinley, and this further ruffled the waves of popular
excitement. Mediation, of course, was not to be con-
founded with intervention, and the Pope never went fur-
ther than to convey to the two powers, in an informal
manner, his earnest hope that war might be averted, plac-
ing his help and influence at the service of the two gov-
ernments impartially.
Gibbons hoped that the Cuban insurgents could be per-
suaded to agree to an armistice, in order that steps for
mediation might be taken. Archbishop Ireland, with the
full sympathy of the Cardinal, went to Washington and
used his efforts to induce the American government to
negotiate with the insurgents for that purpose. Nothing
which could be done served to lessen the force of the con-
stantly increasing demand in America for war, for in the
minds of the people there was a fixed conviction that they
had been the victims of an atrocious national insult.
Ireland's attempt to prepare the ground for formal medi-
ation failed, and, the consent of both powers being unob-
tainable, the Pope was unable to proceed beyond the
presentation of his offer.*
Representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany,
Austria and Russia supported at Madrid, on April 8, the
Papal suggestion of an immediate armistice in Cuba.
Two days before, the representatives of the same powers
in Washington had made a united appeal for peace to
President McKinley. Spain was so desirous of averting
war that in her reply to these powers, April 9, she went
* Benton, International Law and Diplomacy of the Spanish-American
fVar, pp. 86-89.
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 605
so far as to announce a suspension of hostilities against
the insurgents. This concession was too late to be ef-
fective.
Gibbons shared the disappointment of Archbishop Ire-
land, and of many other peace-loving Americans, at the
failure of the efforts to avert war. He believed that had
the United States agreed to mediation there would have
been little doubt that peace could have been secured on
the basis of Cuban independence, and subsequent evi-
dence showed that his view was well founded. The
situation was complicated by the fact that the passions
aroused by the destruction of the Maine had stirred a
popular feeling in the United States for which there was
no offsetting influence in Spain; and although Min-
ister Woodford, then the representative of the United
States at Madrid, subsequently declared that President
McKinley desired to avert war, and other testimony on
this point was overwhelming, the tide was too strong to
be stemmed at Washington.^
Gibbons was firmly convinced that the majority of the
conservative people of the United States did not desire
war. He had seen a new generation grow up since the
horrors of the great civil conflict, which knew nothing
of the miseries that follow in the wake of such convul-
sions; and he attributed the inflammable state of public
opinion chiefly to the young and the adventurous. Al-
though his hope of peace waned, he did not give up his
efforts until America had embarked definitely upon the
war.
' Morris, The War with Spain, pp. 124, 125.
606 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
From the moment when the final decision was made
in Washington he threw in his lot unreservedly with his
country. In a public address,^ June 13, he said:
"We must love our country next to God, and be ready
to die for it if necessary. We must loyally and firmly
sustain our laws and our governing powers. There was a
time, before the war began, when every citizen had the
right to express his views upon the policy of the nation;
but after Congress has spoken the words that bring us
to war, it is our duty now to work with and for our coun-
try, and by prayer for and full sympathy with those in
authority to help bring the conflict to a speedy and suc-
cessful conclusion."
As masses of men were hastily called from civil life
for service in the army and navy, Gibbons, as a minister
of religion, devoted his utmost efforts toward providing
good influences for them. In a visit to President Mc-
Kinley at Washington, he urgently recommended that
additional Catholic chaplains be assigned to duty with the
forces on land and sea, so that they might be more nearly
in proportion to the number of Catholics in the service.
He pointed out to the President that although a great
number of Catholics were wearing the uniform of their
country, only a few chaplains of their own faith were
available to protect their spiritual welfare. McKinley,
like his recent predecessors, knew Gibbons well and
highly esteemed him. He listened sympathetically to the
plea for additional chaplains and readily agreed that they
should be provided, accepting the recommendations of
Gibbons and other prelates as to their qualifications.
*At the commencement of Loyola College in Baltimore.
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 607
Gibbons hoped that the conflict would be at least short,
as the result seemed to him to be never in doubt. He
was engaged in diocesan work in Western Maryland when
the battle of July 3 resulted in the utter overthrow of the
fleet of the Spanish admiral, Cervera, for whose high
character and courage he shared the genuine respect which
Americans generally felt. He rejoiced at the chivalrous
feeling which prompted the abundant courtesies shown
to Cervera when the defeated admiral was conveyed as a
prisoner to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and took
an early opportunity of visiting him there. The admiral
freely expressed to Gibbons his satisfaction with his
treatment by his American captors. Upon his release,
before starting for his home in Spain, he called upon the
Cardinal in Baltimore and bade him farewell.
Gibbons' whole aim was cooperation with the Ameri-
can authorities until the conflict was ended. He took
prompt action in accordance with the proclamation of
President McKinley in July inviting the people of the
nation to offer thanks for the American victories. A cir-
cular letter "^ to the clergy which he prepared was read
in all the churches of the Baltimore archdiocese on Sun-
day, July 17, in which he said:
"While the President naturally rejoices in the extra-
ordinary achievements of our naval forces, he is far from
indulging in a tone of vain complacency and passionate
exultation. Filled with a profound sense of his responsi-
bilities as the chief magistrate of a great nation, and in
solemn language worthy of the occasion, he depicts the
horrors of war with its long train of suffering, disease and
* Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.
608 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
death, and he asks us to implore the Lord of Hosts, who
holds in His hand the destinies of nations and of men, to
restore to our beloved country the blessings of peace. In
compliance with the President's proclamation, you will
request your congregation to unite with you in thanking
Almighty God for the victories He has vouchsafed to us ;
in beseeching Him to protect our brave soldiers and
sailors from the dangers of disease and death which sur-
round them; to lead the conflict in which they are en-
gaged to a speedy and happy issue and bring back to us
once more the inestimable blessings of enduring peace at
home and abroad. You will also exhort your congrega-
tion to pray for those brave men who have sacrificed their
lives in their country's cause."
When more than one hundred members of a Mary-
land regiment were brought back from the front to a
hospital in Baltimore, Gibbons hastened to visit them,
shaking hands with and speaking a few kindly words to
each.
The perilous situation of the priests in the Spanish
colonies where the war was in progress moved his sym-
pathy. He wrote in his journal:
"Aug. 18. Received the following cablegram:
'Hong Kong, Aug. 18, 1898. Use influence release one
hundred priests arrested by insurgents at Cavite.
PiAzzoLi.' Mgr. Piazzoli is Vicar Apostolic of Hong
Kong.
"Aug. 21. Sent him the following answer : 'President
instructs (General) Merritt to protect lives and property
of priests.' On receiving the dispatch I communicated
with the President through Archbishop Ireland, who was
in Washington. The President informed his Grace that
General Merritt, commander at Manila, had instructions
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 609
to protect the lives and property of all, and to have no
dealings with Aguinaldo, the rebel leader. Had a con-
ference with Archbishop Ireland and the Apostolic Dele-
gate. The latter came with a letter from Cardinal Ram-
poUa, who requested the Delegate to confer with me re-
garding the Cuban and Philippine situation in the inter-
ests of religion. The Delegate sent a full account of
transactions to Cardinal Rampolla, stating what we have
done and hope to do in the future."
Secretary Alger, of the War Department, exerted his
influence to prevent persecution of the clergy in the
Philippines in the period following the cessation of active
hostilities with Spain. Gibbons wrote him a letter of
thanks after one case of his intervention, in which he said
that the Secretary's conduct "merits the lasting gratitude
of the suffering clergy in the Philippines."
Gibbons' chief role, so far as the Spanish-American
War period was concerned, began after the few months
of fighting had ceased. It was in a sequel of the war that
he found his main opportunity to serve both Church and
country and the service that he gave was among the
most important which he ever contributed to either. Dur-
ing the actual clash at arms he could only devote his
labors as a minister of religion to the welfare and spiritual
care of the soldiers and sailors, and as a citizen to sup-
porting the national authorities by word, deed and ex-
ample to the utmost of his power. But with the truce and
the preparations for negotiating a treaty of peace the
question of whether millions of Catholics in the islands
where the rule of Spain had been overthrown were to be
transferred to American sovereignty developed as the
principal problem of the country. Were the Philippines
610 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to be held indefinitely and, if so, under what status; and
what was to be the fate of Porto Rico?
McKinley was doubtful when the future of these
islands, then fully occupied by American troops, came
to be decided ; and he took counsel with the wisest whom
he could consult upon a question of so much moment. A
summons sent to Baltimore brought Gibbons to the White
House for consultation but left him in ignorance of the
subject. This, in itself, did not surprise him, for he had
been in touch with McKinley rather frequently and
knew that there were many pending matters regarding
which the President would desire his help.
Arriving at the White House he was soon ushered in to
the presence of McKinley, who, as usual, greeted him
with marked cordiality. After only a few words had
been exchanged the President suddenly revealed the rea-
son of the summons by asking Gibbons directly for his
opinion as to whether it would be best for the United
States to retain the Philippines.
The Cardinal was startled. He had positive views
on the subject but had been especially solicitous to keep
them in the background, avoiding participation in the
political solution of the problem, avoiding above all else
hampering the civil authorities in any way in dealing
with weighty questions regarding which they must take
the responsibility before the country and the world.
He felt that the Catholic religion was safer under the
American flag than anywhere else. The impartial but
full protection of that flag was the best shield for the
Church's spiritual mission. She was free in America, as
the people were free. None dared interfere, none in au-
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 611
thority thought of interfering, in the internal affairs of
the Church, directly or remotely. Spoliation, to which
the Church in Europe was not a stranger, then or since,
was undreamed of where the Stars and Stripes stood as
the symbol of guardianship for religion and order.
But Gibbons had not wished to see America become a
colonial power and, more than that, he had not wished
to see her take lands and peoples by force. He wished
her to be an exemplar to the world of what other nations
had failed to be in this respect. The example of liberty
and justice which, in his view, the main outlines of her
history presented, was more to her, more to civilization,
than any act of aggression or force, no matter how suc-
cessful. These were the thoughts which sped through
his brain when McKinley startled him with the direct
question as to his views on the retention of the Philip-
pines.
For all his desire to be aloof from the Philippine ques-
tion, he felt that he would be wanting in patriotism as
well as frankness and fairness to the President if he failed
to respond. McKinley had the clear right to ask for
advice from any citizen, and it was a citizen's duty to
give that advice with an eye single to the truth. Gib-
bons' answer to the question as to whether the Philip-
pines ought to be retained was:
"Mr. President, it would be a good thing for the Cath-
olic Church but, I fear, a bad one for the United States."
McKinley's ultimate course was determined by exi-
gencies of a political and international nature. If all the
views which he received in his consultations on the settle-
ment of the war had been as genuine as those of his
612 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
friend, the Prince of the Catholic Church in America,
many stumbling blocks would have been removed from
his difficult path of duty in the years just preceding his
assassination in office.
The Philippines were retained, but the peace which
ensued was, so far as they were concerned, only a peace
on paper. In the insurrection against the American au-
thorities which burst out, force of arms was, indeed, suf-
ficient to crush one body of native troops after another
as they gave organized resistance to the new authority
dominant in the islands; but it was not sufficient to sup-
press or even to lessen the main cause of disaffection
which, as was soon evident, threatened to keep alive for
an indefinite time a smoldering fire of hostility, which
would inevitably increase to a blaze periodically de-
spite the utmost measures which the American authorities
were able to take.
This cause was the friar land question — a special prob-
lem of the Philippines and essentially a political one in
1898. It was by no means complicated with any desire
to throw off allegiance to the Church, which had carried
the light of Christianity to the Filipinos centuries before.
By means of almost incredible sacrifices on the part of
Spanish missionaries, the natives of those islands had be-
come the only Christian people in all Eastern Asia and the
territories adjacent. With religion had come the spirit
of civilization among the previously barbarous tribes.
The Church had been the nursing mother of the Philip-
pine people and they knew it.
In time, by a process which appears to have been in-
evitable in the special conditions that accompanied the
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 613
reclamation of the Philippines from savagery, the mem-
bers of the religious orders had come to absorb many of
the functions of government.^ In the Island of Luzon
and to some extent in other parts of the archipelago the
friars were ardent Spaniards as well as ardent priests.
They became inspectors of the primary schools and presi-
dents of the boards of health, prisons and charities; were
in charge of the collection of taxes; acted as recruiting
officers for the Spanish army; attended municipal elec-
tions and council meetings, audited municipal accounts
and passed upon budgets. While the Spanish officials
in the islands were few in number and were continually
changed, the friars resided permanently in the country,
identifying themselves completely with the people. As
was reported by the Taft Commission:
"The truth is that the whole government of Spain in
these islands rested on the friars. . . . Once settled in a
territory, a priest usually continued there until super-
annuation. He was, therefore, a constant political factor
for a generation. The same was true of the Archbishops
and the Bishops. . . . The friars were exempt from trial
for offenses, except the most heinous, in the ordinary civil
courts of the islands, under the Spanish rule."
Through their permanent residence, the superior de-
velopment and cultivation of their lands, their habits of
personal frugality and the accretion of gifts and bequests
from the pious, the friars came to be the legal possessors
of the largest proportion of the lucrative agricultural
property in the Philippines. In the Aguinaldo revolution
native political leaders not only sought to seize their
' Atkinson, The Philippine Islands, p. 320 et seq.
614. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
lands but also drove many of them from the islands as
refugees. With the gradual restoration of peace and the
establishment of American authority in one district after
another, they began to return.
The transfer of the islands to American rule resulted
at once in depriving them of their civil functions; but it
was incumbent upon the United States to protect them
in the ownership of their lands and it became apparent
that there could be no permanent peace in the Philippines
unless those lands were acquired for wide distribution
under the auspices of the new government.
Negotiations with the friars were begun and proceeded
for months while new revolts were threatened. There
was a wide divergence as to the amount to be paid for
the immensely rich tracts of which they were the owners
and as to the terms under which the transfer would be
made.
President Roosevelt, strongly convinced that the pur-
chase of the friar lands was the one thing needed to bring
peace in the Philippines, strove to the utmost of his
ability to bring about an accommodation of terms which
would make a solution possible. One failure after an-
other confronted him.
When a complete impasse had been reached and Roose-
velt was at his wits' end regarding the next step to be
taken, Cardinal Gibbons, whom he had known well be-
fore he became President and whom he, like McKinley,
had been accustomed to consult on problems growing out
of the war, visited him one day at the White House. The
substance of their conversation, after the exchange of
personal compliments, was:
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 615
Gibbons. — I observe, Mr. President, that you are de-
sirous of obtaining an agreement for the settlement of
the friar land question in the Philippines.
Roosevelt. — Your Eminence, that is the greatest dif-
ficulty that I am having. It is the one problem which at
present completely baffles me. I know that there must
be a settlement in order to bring about permanent peace
in the Islands and have tried my best to bring about a
settlement. Mr. Taft ^ has also done his utmost, and we
are both powerless.
Gibbons. — On what terms do you wish to make a set-
tlement, Mr. President 9
Roosevelt. — The main question is, of course, the price
to be paid. If we can arrange that I believe that other
things can be adjusted.
Gibbons. — Would you be disposed to tell me of your
terms, both as to price and other general conditions^
Roosevelt. — Oh, yes. The utmost which it seems
possible to obtain the consent of Congress to paying for
these lands is about $7,000,000. We wish to resell the
lands to other purchasers in comparatively small holdings,
so that the friars will no longer be a factor in the eco-
nomic situation in the Philippines.
Gibbons. — I will undertake, Mr. President, to obtain
a settlement for you on the terms which you state. I
have no suggestion of my own on the subject.
Steps to give effectiveness to Gibbons' undertaking
were in progress almost immediately. Roosevelt sent
Taft to Rome to negotiate for a complete settlement after
Taft had conferred with Gibbons in Baltimore. The
negotiations in Rome formed a precedent for the Ameri-
can Government, which had not for a long time found it
necessary to deal directly with the Papacy. Final accord
' Then civil governor of the Philippines.
616 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
upon every detail of the problem was arranged upon the
terms laid down by Mr. Roosevelt.
With the dispersal of ownership of the friar lands, the
way was open for a permanent American policy of pre-
paring the Filipinos for the gradual assumption of the
functions of self government. A sudden and mysterious
force had intervened in the land question of which the
public did not know, for neither Gibbons nor Roosevelt,
naturally, could disclose it at the time. It was the force
of Gibbons. For the Cardinal's services in this, one of
the most perplexing obstacles which Roosevelt encoun-
tered while serving as President, he cherished to his
death unfailing gratitude and deep affection.
Gibbons devoted himself with energy to the readjust-
ment of the general conditions under which the Church
existed in the Philippines, Cuba and Porto Rico. This
was his especial mission when he paid a visit to Rome
in the spring of 1901. Before his departure he sum-
moned to Baltimore Archbishops Ireland, Williams and
Kain, whom he consulted as to his program.
He arrived in Rome May 22, having been preceded
only a few days by his warm friend. Archbishop Chapelle,
an American prelate who had been appointed Papal Dele-
gate to the Philippines, and Mgr. Nozaleda, Archbishop
of Manila. Taking up his residence at the Procura of
St. Sulpice, he was soon engrossed in a series of consul-
tations with Leo XIII and other high authorities of the
Church. Gibbons was rejoiced to find Leo, at ninety- two,
fully equal to facing every detail of the problems which
had to be settled and receptive to his own views. The
Pope's memory for details continued to be marvelous.
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 617
Gibbons had informed him fully by letter of general con-
ditions in the United States and in the recently trans-
ferred Spanish islands and of the difficulties which had
to be met.
The Pope was not only keenly alert as to ecclesiastical
conditions with which it was necessary to deal, but as to
the political and economic aspects of the new situation.
He told Gibbons, as he always did when the American
Cardinal visited him in Rome, of the especial love for
the American people of which he had given abundant evi-
dence, and showed a marked disposition to cooperate with
them in the readjustment in the Philippines, Cuba and
Porto Rico. He relied, he said, upon the sense of justice
of the President and his advisers in working out the sit-
uation. Leo agreed with Gibbons that one of the great-
est needs was the sending of American priests to the
islands who would understand the American system as
applied to Church and State better than the Spanish
priests and friars.
Arrangements were rapidly completed for the purchase
of the property rights of the Church in Cuba and Porto
Rico as a means of abolishing the public support of the
clergy. With these adaptations to new conditions Leo
expressed himself as thoroughly satisfied. The American
Government, he said, gave proof of good will and ex-
pressed in acts a spirit of justice and of respect for the
liberty and rights of the Church. He voiced the firm
conviction that there would be due respect for rights
of property and of conscience under the government. The
mass of reports which he received from Bishops and
others confirmed him in this view and he was glad to
618 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
express his gratitude to the President for the fairness and
forbearance that had been shown.
While in Rome Gibbons gave a dinner at which seven
nationalities were represented in the group of fourteen
persons, including two other Cardinals, three Arch-
bishops, three Bishops, four priests and two laymen. He
commented upon this as exemplifying in a striking man-
ner the unity of the Catholic faith, which had remained
with him as an especially profound impression ever since
his memorable experience in the Vatican Council.
Leo received him in farewell audience June 18. Gib-
bons' mission had been concluded under the happiest aus-
pices. The general lines of all pending readjustments
of ecclesiastical conditions in the Spanish islands had
been fixed and the democratic Pope and the democratic
Cardinal were alike happy over the outcome. Leo ex-
pressed the belief that it was the last time he would see
Gibbons, upon whose counsel and vigorous help he had
leaned so often. Gibbons, with whom the wish was per-
haps father to the thought, was led to believe that the
great commander under whom he had fought so many
battles would live to round out a century.
Gibbons had conducted his delicate mission in Rome
under serious obstacles of ill health. The heat of the
summer in the Eternal City oppressed him, especially as
his general physical condition then showed, as it did not
infrequently, signs of impairment. As usual, after a
period of severe exertions in Rome, he sought recupera-
tion in a leisurely trip homeward, spending a few days in
Florence and then proceeding on his journey by way of
France, Belgium, Holland, England and Ireland. When
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 619
he arrived in Paris Paul Bourget was moved to write of
him in Le Figaro:
"Cardinal Gibbons is of the race of those ascetics in
whom it seems that mortifications may have left only as
much flesh as suffices for the labors of the soul."
He was dismayed by the impression which intimate
touch in Paris gave him of church legislation by the
French Chambers, the character of which was beginning
to cause grave concern. Mentally he contrasted it with
the certainty with which the Church had been able to
weather every difficulty that had confronted her in
America and with the outlook for a continuation of the
cordiality and mutual sympathy which prevailed be-
tween the leaders of Church and State in his own
country.
After a visit to Cardinal Vaughan in London, where
English Catholics were eager to meet and greet the co-
worker of Maiming, he proceeded to Ireland. As the
guest of the Bishop of Cloyne, addresses from Catholic
societies were presented to him, commenting in glowing
terms upon the advance of the Catholic faith in America
during recent years. Responding to these. Gibbons ex-
pressed his pleasure in testifying to the great share which
Irish immigrants had borne in building up America's
prosperity and the devoted sacrifices of the hundreds of
Irish priests who labored among the American people.
Amelioratory land legislation by the British Government
had then attained some progress in Ireland and he ex-
pressed the hope that the time had com.e for the Irish
to remain at home, where, by the exercise of as much
620 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
industry and initiative as they would show in America,
they might attain prosperity which would satisfy their
desires.
Sailing from Queenstown August 18, he received an
enthusiastic welcome upon his arrival in New York.
He summed up his observations abroad by remarking that
he found that Americans were now regarded in a differ-
ent light by Europeans. He said :
"As 'nothing succeeds like success,' the vigor with
which we carried on the Spanish-American War and the
ease with which we gained possession of the Philippines
and Porto Rico have caused Europeans to regard the
United States as a world power. Certainly we are more
feared than formerly, and there is not a movement made
in Europe now without consideration of what effect it
will have on the United States. I will not say that our
successes will contribute to our happiness as a nation,
but certainly they have increased our power and prestige
abroad. But a few years ago, the United States was
hardly taken into account at all; now, we are regarded
as rivals with the powers of Europe, and are feared by
them, politically and commercially."
He returned to Baltimore August 25 and again re-
ceived high public honors among the mass of his neigh-
bors, who esteemed him, perhaps, more for the simple
and homely virtues which he exhibited in his daily inter-
course with them than for his eminence as a world figure,
the reflected light of which conferred fame upon their city
and his. An overflowing crowd acclaimed him at the
railroad station, where he was formally received by the
acting Mayor, Henry Williams, and by Charles J. Bona-
parte on behalf of the Catholic laity. To their welcom-
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 621
ing speeches he responded briefly, saying simply from the
bottom of his heart that there was no country so dear
to him as America and no place so dear to him as Balti-
more.
He was escorted to the Cathedral by a long parade of
uniformed members of Catholic societies and others. In
that noble edifice he spoke again of his pleasure in re-
turning, and bestowed the Apostolic benediction. Stand-
ing upon the front steps of his residence, an unfading
picture to thousands who gazed at him, he reviewed the
parade. It was characteristic of his intense piety as
well as an example to his priests that on the same eve-
ning, putting aside the exactions of business which had
accumulated in his absence, he went into retreat with
the clergy of his diocese for five days at St. Mary's
Seminary.
Gibbons was watchful that the spiritual mission of the
priests in the Spanish islands acquired by America should
not be interfered with in any manner, any more than the
spiritual mission of priests in the United States. Roose-
velt and Gibbons, and later Taft and Gibbons, cooper-
ated in the protection of the rights of the clergy and
members of religious orders in the Philippines, Cuba and
Porto Rico. The Cardinal's journal contains these
entries :
*'April 19 [1904]. Received a cablegram from
Bishop Hendrick (of) Cebu, Philippines, requesting me
to ask President Roosevelt to protect the Church there
quickly.
"20th. The President has replied to my letter of in-
quiry, saying that he has no knowledge of the cause of
622 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the complaint, but will make immediate inquiries and
report to me."
Another instance of Roosevelt's cooperation is reflected
in a letter which the Cardinal wrote to Archbishop
Aguis, Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines. The let-
ter read :
"Baltimore, March 5, 1906.
"Your Excellency :
"I take pleasure in sending you herewith a copy of
the letter which President Roosevelt has written me in
reply to your Excellency's document, which I forwarded
to him immediately on its receipt.
"Your Excellency will not fail to note the favorable
disposition of the President toward the matter of your
representation. I am much pleased with the reply, and
trust your Excellency will be pleased also.
"With sentiments of great regard,
"Yours very sincerely in Christ,
"J. Card. Gibbons."
At a later period he felt compelled to interpose in re-
gard to a situation in Cuba of which the following entries
in his journal give an account:
"April 22 [1909]. The Apostolic Delegate of Cuba
informed the Holy See of a threatened persecution of the
Church in that Island by prohibiting external manifesta-
tions of religion and by forbidding foreign clergymen and
nuns from officiating. Through the Apostolic Delegate
at Washington I was requested by the Holy Father to
approach the civil authorities in Washington with the
view of soliciting their good offices in behalf of the
Church. I immediately conferred with Mr. Knox, Secre-
tary of State, and with President Taft. I found Mr.
Knox very sympathetic and Mr. Taft was eager to avert
WAR WITH SPAIN— THE FRIAR LANDS 623
the hostility of the Cuban authorities without officially
showing his hand. He informed me that he was send-
ing a fleet to the Argentine Republic to participate in its
centenary, bearing Gen. Leonard Wood, whom the Presi-
dent would instruct to stop at Havana with the fleet and
have a conversation with President Gomez on the subject
of the adverse laws ; General Wood, on reaching Havana,
called on the President and expostulated with him on the
reported impending legislation. Gomez gave the Gen-
eral his assurance that he would exercise his influence
against the proposed laws and expressed his conviction
that they would not be passed. Mr. Taft kindly wrote
to me, inclosing General Wood's letter.
"29. Senor Eliseo Giberga, a representative from the
President of Cuba to the dedication festivities of the
Temple of Peace at W^ashington, and General Carlos
Garcia Velez, Cuban Minister to Washington, called on
me by request of President Taft to inform me that in the
judgment of President Gomez, the threatened legislation
would never be declared ; that, though it should pass the
lower House, it would probably be defeated in the upper
House, and even if it should pass the upper House, it
would certainly be vetoed by the President.
"June 20. Received from Cardinal Merry del Val
a grateful acknowledgment on the part of the Holy Fa-
ther for my services in the Cuban affair."
The uniform cooperation from the American authori-
ties which he received in steps taken for the protection
of priests wherever the flag floated furnished him with
new arguments to present to Rome whenever the ques-
tion of the Church's safety in America was discussed by
European ecclesiastics who lacked direct knowledge of
the practical operations of the system here which Gib-
bons so warmly defended.
CHAPTER XXXV
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X
When the Catholic world — indeed, men everywhere
who honored preeminent goodness and greatness com-
bined in one person — prepared in 1903 to give expres-
sion to the rejoicing that Leo XIII had been spared to
reign twenty-five years, it is safe to say that no one, how-
ever exalted or however humble his station in the Church,
contemplated the coming event with feelings that more
deeply stirred the soul than Gibbons. It seemed that
these two men, whom Archbishop Ireland had linked in
a phrase as the "providential Pope" and the "providen-
tial Archbishop," had been raised up together to share in
many things in which neither could have attained his
full purposes without the other. Leo leaned upon the
judgment of Gibbons. Gibbons regarded the support of
Leo as the most powerful influence on earth in giving ef-
fect to his own aspirations for Church and country. But
the bond between them was more than a bond of con-
current judgment, more than a bond of concurrent striv-
ing; it was one of full mutual confidence, of full mutual
reliance, of an intensity of personal affection attainable
only by souls that ranged far above the commonplace.
The brilliant success of one was the joy of the other.
These two captains of the Church seemed to have been
cast in the same mold, even (at least to some extent)
624
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 625
physically; and there was a strange parallel in their
careers. Both appeared frail and were obstructed in
some of their greatest undertakings by lapses of health,
but both survived to ages given to few men — Leo to
ninety-three and Gibbons to eighty-six. The resemblance
between them in face and form was unmistakable. The
type was precisely the same — the slendemess, grace,
alertness combined with benignity, the general cast of
delicately molded features, the appearance at times al-
most of a saintliness beyond this earth, to which the fra-
gility of their frames lent an added touch of similitude.
Both were natural leaders, born to high command,
exercising control in the largest fields with greater ease
and poise perhaps even than in smaller ones, attracting
to themselves the devoted zeal of a multitude of fol-
lowers ; men who led but did not drive, vibrant with per-
sonal force that communicated itself instantly to those
with whom they came in contact, small or large in num-
ber.
Their mental conceptions seemed to proceed from the
same outlook. Leo swept the world with a scrutiny
reaching beyond the visible present into the invisible
future. The same gift belonged to Gibbons. While their
programs were so far in advance of what men of narrow
vision could conceive that they sometimes appeared im-
practical for a limited time, their long lives brought full
vindication of their judgment in every important aspect.
To Leo and Gibbons it was a changing world; a proc-
ess of rapid evolution was astir. They lived in times
that forecast other times. The Church must not wait
for the pressure of events to direct her, but must antici-
626 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pate those events and be a forerunner of the world's
progress.
This applied mainly to the spiritual, but in the minds
of these two the spiritual and the material welfare of
men were closely linked. While they preached, they
wished also to feed the hungry multitude with the loaves
and fishes. Men were breaking some of their political
bonds, and they would soon break more. As Leo and
Gibbons saw, the Church had been the friend of liberty,
was a friend of liberty in their time and was preparing
the way for a larger liberty in the future. It was a
Christian liberty which eased men's shoulders from the
burden and delivered their hands from making the pots,
but it was also a liberty which must be prevented from
losing its steady, saving force through violent extremes.
While, in the minds of both, the kingdom of the
Church must be established in the hearts and consciences
of men, Leo relaxed no claim of the temporal power,
being convinced as firmly as any one who ever sat in the
chair of Peter that the independence of the Papacy was
necessary for the unity of the faith. As nuncio at Brus-
sels, he had learned that relations with governments were
necessary to the Church in some countries and at some
times ; but he repudiated as abhorrent in one of his ency-
clicals the theory that the Church sought, or should
seek, to be the master of the State.
Both Leo and Gibbons had formulated all of their
greater ideas before either of them knew the other's mind.
When the fortune of ecclesiastical preferment threw them
in close contact, each rejoiced to find in the other a re-
flection of himself. Gibbons had no wish to take any
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 627
active steps for the extension in practise beyond America
of his own views as to civil relations. He felt that he
was an American churchman with a mission to America,
and that satisfied him abundantly; but in the march of
events he became a world figure.
The Church, the Bishop, the priest, the layman in
America he wished to be American in sympathy; to him
the bond of confidence and intimate similarity between
them and their country showed the way to the progress
of religion. While no particular type of nationality was
necessary in a priest to enable him to perform the func-
tions of universal love and service which are embraced
within the Christian faith, the door of approach to the
people would be opened wider if priests and parishioners
were one in all the essential human traits and habits of
thought. In America, no less than England, the num-
ber of priests of foreign birth in Gibbons' early years,
and the century which had preceded those years, had been
large from a cause of which he was well aware — the lack
of facilities for training them in their own country. So
far as America was concerned this had been due to the
sparseness of the Catholic population in the English
element which made up the overwhelming majority of the
colonists who established their independence in 1776,
as well as to the restrictive laws which grievously bur-
dened Catholics in a number of those colonies while under
British rule.
Both opportunity and material means were lacking for
the establishment of seminaries in which to train priests
during the first half century of independence, but now a
marvel had been wrought. The comparatively small
628 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
band of Catholics who had unanimously rallied to the
cause of Washington had expanded into a multitude of
millions, whose aggregate wealth was amply sufficient to
provide for all the necessary operations of the Church
in the United States. Now American democracy could
be exemplified by American Catholic priests to the
American people as never before. Gibbons wished the
proportion of these exemplars to be swelled to the ut-
most extent possible, and the evidence of the results of
his efforts in that direction became overwhelming.
America was free, and it was not simply a political
freedom as Gibbons saw it. It was a freedom for every
reasonable aspiration in men. There must be economic
freedom — hence he fought for the rights of labor. There
must be social freedom — hence he strove for changes that
would loosen unreasonable social restrictions imposed
upon the mass. To preserve this freedom, to multiply its
heritage, there must be incessant vigilance against inroads
by extremists. The Church, it appeared to him, must
teach and preach by example even more than by precept.
Here, he felt, the road to the hearts of men was far
more widely open than in the countries of Europe. He
wished to take that road and rejoiced that the way was
clear and free.
The parallel between Leo and Gibbons had been pre-
served even in their elevation to the highest offices which
they filled. Leo had been raised to the Papacy in Feb-
ruary, 1878, and in the same month the pallium had been
placed upon the shoulders of Gibbons as Archbishop of
Baltimore. On the threshold of his major career. Gib-
bons had shared the general expectation that the new
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 629
Pope with whom he was to labor concurrently would not
survive for many years; for the principal argument used
against the selection of Cardinal Pecci in the conclave
had been his age, then sixty-eight years. The reign of
Pius IX, thirty-two years in duration, had accustomed
churchmen to look for the benefits that accrued from pro-
longed tenure in the supreme Pontificate, with the uni-
formity of aims and methods that it brings and its orderly
evolution of policies which require much time for frui-
tion. Though the reign of the predecessor of Leo was
the longest in the history of the Papacy, he did not fall
far short of equaling it.
Leo had celebrated the golden jubilee of his episcopate
in 1893, when Gibbons had shared to the full in the
felicitations which were conveyed to him by prelates
throughout the world. The American Cardinal's friend.
President Cleveland, who had recently been inaugurated
for a second term, joined with the executives of other
nations in expressing grateful recognition of Leo's serv-
ices to humanity. Through Gibbons, he sent to the Pon-
tiff as a present one of an edition of twenty copies con-
taining the official papers and documents written by him
during his first term in the presidency. His congratula-
tions were conveyed in the following letter ^ to Gibbons :
"Executive Mansion,
"Washington, June 9, 1893.
*'To His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons^
"Your Eminence:
"Please permit me to transmit through you to his Holi-
ness, Leo XIII, my sincere congratulations on the occa-
sion of the Golden Jubilee of his Episcopate.
* Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.
630 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"The pleasure attending this expression of my felici-
tations is much enhanced by the remembrance that his
Holiness has always manifested a lively interest in the
prosperity of the United States and great admiration for
our political institutions. I am glad to believe that these
sentiments are the natural outgrowth of the Holy
Father's solicitude for the welfare and happiness of the
masses of humanity, and his special sympathy for every
effort made to dignify simple manhood and to promote
the social and moral betterment of those who toil.
"The kindness with which his Holiness lately accepted
a copy of the Constitution of the United States leads me
to suggest that — if it does not seem presumption — it
would please me exceedingly to place in his hands a
book containing the official papers and documents writ-
ten by me during my previous term of office.
"Yours very sincerely,
"Grover Cleveland."
Gibbons expressed his cordial appreciation of the
President's thoughtfulness, and in due time the volume
was prepared and forwarded to him. He acknowledged
it in this letter :
"Cardinal's Residence
"408 N. Charles St.,
"Baltimore, Md.
"September 20, 1893.
"My dear Mr. Cleveland:
"On returning home today from Chicago, I found the
valuable volume containing your State papers awaiting
my return. I shall forward the volume as soon as possible
to Rome, and I assure you that there are few gifts which
the Holy Father will receive with more satisfaction than
yours. . . .
"I avail myself of this occasion by joyfully tendering
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 631
to Mrs. Cleveland and yourself my hearty congratula-
tions on the choice blessing which God has bestowed upon
you both in the person of a new daughter, the first child,
I am told, ever born to a President during his incum-
bency of the presidential office. May this young queen
be a source of unalloyed joy and consolation to her
parents.
"Faithfully yrs. in Christ,
"J. Card. Gibbons."
With the approach of Leo's silver jubilee as Pope, Gib-
bons wrote to him a fervent letter in the name of the
American Bishops upon the anniversary. He expressed
joy that Leo in his long reign had given signal proofs of
his interest in the Church in America. Among these
proofs he enumerated the convoking of the Third Plen-
ary Council of Baltimore, which had framed for the
Church here a stable and comprehensive constitution that
had served to prepare her for her marvelous advance; the
Papal support of and interest in the Catholic University
at Washington, which had made possible the develop-
ment of that great project far even beyond the hopes of
those who had cherished it in its beginnings; and Leo's
special letter of congratulation on the centennial of the
American Hierarchy, in which he had crowned with the
Pontifical commendation the program for the expansion
of the Church here which the Bishops were then begin-
ning to carry out. To Leo he gave his fullest loyalty as
the apex and center of Catholic teaching and of the
priesthood, the representative of that unity which Christ
destined for His Church.^
•Letter of Cardinal Gibbons to Leo XIII, March 3, 1902.
632 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
In the following month the Pope responded with an
encyclical addressed to Gibbons and the American
Bishops, in which he recorded his deepest gratitude for
their continuous support during his Pontificate, as well as
for the development of religion in the United States. He
wrote :
"Certainly we have reason to rejoice, and the Catholic
world, on account of its reverence for the Apostolic See,
has reason to rejoice at the extraordinary fact that we
are to be reckoned as the third in the long line of Roman
Pontiffs to whom it has been happily given to enter upon
the twenty-fifth year of the supreme priesthood. But in
this circle of congratulations, while the voices of all are
welcome to us, that of the Bishops and faithful of the
United States of North America brings us special joy,
both on account of the conditions which give your coun-
try prominence over many others, and of the special love
we entertain for you.
"You have been pleased, beloved son and venerable
brothers, in your joint letter to us, to mention in detail
what, prompted by love for you, we have done for your
churches during the course of our pontificate. We, on
the other hand, are glad to call to mind the many dif-
ferent ways in which you have ministered to our consola-
tion throughout this period. If we found pleasure in the
state of things which prevailed among you when we first
entered upon the charge of the supreme apostolate, now
that we have advanced beyond twenty-four years in the
same charge, we are constrained to confess that our first
pleasure has never been diminished, but, on the contrary,
has increased from day to day by reason of the increase
of Catholicity iamong you.
"The cause of this increase, although first of all to be
attributed to the providence of God, must also be ascribed
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 633
both to your energy and activity. You have, in your
prudent policy, promoted every kind of Catholic organi-
zation with such wisdom as to provide for all necessities
and all contingencies in harmony with the remarkable
character of the people of your country.
"We have gladly availed ourselves of every oppor-
tunity to testify to the constancy of our solicitude for you
and for the interests of religion among you. And our
daily experience obliges us to confess that we have found
your people, through your influence, endowed with per-
fect docility of mind and alacrity of disposition. There-
fore, while the changes and tendencies of nearly all the
nations which were Catholic for many centuries give
cause for sorrow, the state of your churches in their flour-
ishing youthfulness cheers our heart and fills it with de-
light. True, you are shown no special favor by the law
of the land, but, on the other hand, your law-givers are
certainly entitled to praise for the fact that they do
nothing to restrain you in your just liberty." ^
Leo proceeded to express his satisfaction with the
methods which the Church had adopted for carrying her
appeal among Protestants. He highly commended the
missions in behalf of the Indians, in which Gibbons had
been particularly active, and those of the priests and
teachers who had been sent to assist the negro popula-
tion in its struggle upward. Gibbons ordered a triduum
April 3 in honor of the jubilee.
The mind of Leo, which had glowed so long like a
brilliant torch, could not burn forever, and the worn,
body, almost transparent in its frailty, must yield in time
to the weakness of the flesh. Soon after the jubilee his
last illness, pneumonia, fell upon him. Often before the
'Encyclical, April 15, 190a.
634. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
whisper that the Pope had been taken ill had passed
around the Vatican; but this time it was not long before
his physicians and household saw that hopes of his re-
covery were vain. Their efforts were directed toward
prolonging his life by the devices of medical science.
When it appeared that death was inevitable, Gibbons
was promptly advised from Rome. No American up to
that time had taken part in the election of a Pope. Car-
dinal McCloskey had been a member of the Sacred Col-
lege at the death of Pius IX, and had sailed for Rome
to vote in the conclave; but he had proceeded only as
far as Paris when he was notified that the new Pontiff
had already been elected. Travel to Europe had be-
come more rapid now, and Gibbons resolved that physi-
cal obstacles should not prevent his participation with
his brother Cardinals in the great function that was
before them.
If Gibbons had waited until the Pope's death to start,
it would have been impossible, perhaps, for him to reach
Rome in time, as the conclave was to begin on the tenth
day after death. For several days before the final mes-
sage from Rome caused him to decide to set out, accom-
modations were secured for him provisionally on every
steamship that sailed from New York. He was kept
informed of the movements of ships and other details
regarding the prospects of his trip until midnight on
those days.
It was eleven o'clock Wednesday morning, July 8,
1893, when Gibbons received in a cable dispatch from
Cardinal Rampolla the information that the Pope's
death was certain. Not a moment was lost. The Rev.
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 635
P. C. Gavan, chancellor of the archdiocese of Baltimore,
whom he had selected to accompany him as conclavist,
was sitting at his desk in the archiepiscopal residence
when Gibbons entered the room and said simply: "Come
along, sir.'*
Down went the desk with a bang, for the priest knew
the Cardinal's mood and was ready to fall in with it.
The letter which he had been writing was left unfin-
ished. When he returned from Rome, it was still there;
but he had met abroad the one for whom it was intended.
Gibbons and Gavan hurried to the ofRce of a steamship
agent with whom they had been in communication, ob-
tained their tickets, and returned home for hasty and
final packing. After a hurried dinner they boarded the
train at one o'clock for New York. They found their
apartments ready on the vessel which was to bear them
across the Atlantic, despite the fact that the tide of Euro-
pean travel was then at its height for the season, and ac-
commodations on fast ocean ships could usually be ob-
tained only by waiting for months.
More than a week passed, but still Leo lived. The
world had become so accustomed to the marvel of his
vitality that it was not surprised. At last all human
resources failed, and on July 20 he expired.
Gibbons was then in Paris. His presence in Rome was
not immediately necessary, and he proceeded to Lucerne,
where he spent several days. In that city United States
Senator Elkins, of West Virginia, showed him especial
honor. He also met Senator Depew of New York and
him who was to be Depew's successor, the then Justice
O' Gorman.
636 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
On Sunday morning, July 26, he arrived in Rome,
and took up his quarters at the Procura of St. Sulpice,
where there were also four French Cardinals — Richard of
Paris, Perraud of Autun, Lecot of Bordeaux and Coullie
of Lyons. Sixty-one other Cardinals had arrived in the
city — the entire membership of the Sacred College at
that time, except Moran of Australia, and the Cardinal
of Palermo, who was kept at home by illness.
Rome was not lacking in special interest in the un-
precedented circumstance of the arrival of an American
Cardinal to take part in the election of a Pope. One
newspaper printed an account of his career, the first part
of which was a word picture of America, represented
as young, strong, ardent, impatient of restraint, bold
and successful. The article proceeded to declare that
Gibbons possessed these qualifications in an eminent de-
gree. As the writer, with a leap of the imagination,
forecast the conclave. Gibbons would rush matters from
the beginning, would brook no delays, and would bring
the proceedings to a speedy end even if the hallowed
traditions of centuries were dragged in the dust.
The next morning the secretary of one of the Cardinals,
whose See was on the shore of the Adriatic, said to Father
Gavan :
"Who is your Cardinal?'
"Cardinal Gibbons — the American Cardinal," replied
the priest.
"What, the terrible American I" was the startled reply.
"Show him to me when he comes out."
When Gibbons appeared the young secretary looked
disappointed and exclaimed :
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 637
"Why, he is just as cultivated, refined and intellectual
as one of our own Italian cardinals."
The conclave did not assemble until the Friday evening
following Gibbons' arrival. In the meanwhile there were
services in the Sistine Chapel every morning, after which
the Cardinals gathered in the halls of the Vatican and at-
tended to the business of the Church, as is their custom
when the Papacy is vacant. For the time being they
were all sovereigns, sharing equally in deciding the ques-
tions which came before them. The camerlengo. Car-
dinal Oreglia, the only member of the conclave who had
been elevated before the reign of Leo, presided. Busi-
ness to be transacted was presented by Monsignor Merry
del Val, secretary of the conclave, who was not then a
Cardinal, but was soon to succeed to that dignity and to
the Papal secretaryship of state.
About six o'clock Friday evening the electors entered
the conclave and drew lots for the apartments in the
Vatican which they were to occupy. Gibbons received as
his quarters two rooms which had been used as offices, near
the entrance to a staircase leading to the apartments lately
occupied by Leo. One room was for the Cardinal him-
self, the other for his conclavist. They were small and
scantily furnished, the room of Gibbons containing an old
iron bedstead, one armchair, two smaller chairs with
rush bottoms, a table and an iron washstand. Their
meals were served by a domestic servant who occupied
quarters in another part of the building.
Leo's own hand had framed the regulations under
which his successor was elected. He had been camer-
lengo at the death of Pius IX, and had been impressed
638 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to set down, for the benefit of posterity, the fruit of his
experience in the conclave that ensued. There are elab-
orate regulations for the choice of a Pope, for the Church
devotes supreme effort to establishing safeguards for
preventing human interposition against the will of Divine
Providence in such gatherings. From historical experi-
ence she has designated precise forms to protect the se-
crecy and fairness of the election. Leo revised the previ-
ously existing regulations to some extent, writing the
rules carefully in a book, which he ordered to be pre-
served for the exigency that would follow his own death.
The main precautions which the wisdom of centuries
has shown to be desirable were retained without essential
change. While in the conclave the Cardinals are virtually
prisoners. They are, in some respects, like a civil jury,
locked up to deliberate upon a case of momentous grav-
ity, though far more care is taken to bring about the best
decision on their part, and the dignity and solemnity which
surround them and their function are infinitely greater.
The requirement of rigorous seclusion was emphasized
by a decree of Gregory X in the year 1274 a. d. after he
had been elected by a conclave which drew out its ses-
sions more than three years. This was the conclave of
Viterbo, which assembled upon the death of Clement IV.
After an interregnum of two years and nine months had
elapsed, the seventeen Cardinals who were voting were
shut up in the Papal palace with no food but bread and
no drink but water. As the decision did not seem to be
hastened, Charles of Anjou went further and took off
part of the palace roof, in order that the unchecked ele-
ments of nature might operate in forcing the electors to
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 639
complete their task; but even after that ordeal of physi-
cal hardship was imposed upon them, six months passed
before they united in choosing Gregory. Time has some-
what modified the severe discipline in regard to conclaves
imposed by him and succeeding Pontiffs in the Middle
Ages; but there has not been the slightest departure from
the principles of seclusion and secrecy.
Every step of the solemn process impressed the keenly
imaginative mind of Gibbons, as his experience in the
majesty of the Vatican Council, the first ecumenical gath-
ering of the Church in three hundred years, had im-
pressed him a third of a century before. It is impossible
for a man of sensitive perceptions to pass through such
scenes without being almost overwhelmed by the weight
of the message which they bear from the early days of
Christianity, when strong and devoted fathers of the
Church kept alive the fire of faith amid the utmost dis-
tractions that afl3icted men and nations. Through all of
the trials no fraction of doctrine was surrendered; no
rule of discipline was permanently modified against the
impartial judgment of the Church.
In the presence of evidence, that swept the senses, of
the rising and falling of kingdoms and of men while the
faith alone endured, the American Cardinal was thrilled,
but he did not lose his poise. At the Vatican council, as
the youngest of twelve hundred Bishops, he had felt
obliged to preserve a "discreet silence," as he wrote,
though he formed definite opinions upon every subject
that came up, and acted in accordance with them. Now
he was a Cardinal of nineteen years' service. Was he to
be a leader or a follower? Men like himself must bear
640 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the responsibility of the all-important decision about to
be made. Must he relapse into diffidence because he was
the first American to sit in a Papal conclave^ Would
the novelty of his role, all the more striking to him as he
lived and moved for the time being amid the traditions
of centuries, subdue his voice"? His mental answer was
"no!" Though the mass of these traditions had been
born while America was still a wilderness, he spoke now
for 15,000,000 Catholics, and as their representative he
would not fail to do his part.
As always under trying circumstances, a buoyant cheer-
fulness sustained him. When Cardinal Oreglia, as the
time for secluding the electors arrived, passed along the
corridors where they were lodged, preceded by a master
of ceremonies, crying ''Extra omnesr Gibbons remarked:
"Just think of my being locked up and my liberty cur-
tailed at my time of life !"
A ballot was taken every morning while the conclave
was in progress. The master of ceremonies passed the
apartments of the electors, summoning them with the
formula ''In capellam^ 'Domini'^ They proceeded to the
Sistine Chapel, where they took the seats allotted to them,
over each of which was a canopy indicating the sovereign
dignity which they possessed for the time being. The
subdean celebrated low Mass, and the voting began.
Three Cardinals {scrutatores) were chosen by lot each
time to preside over the voting; three (revisores) to veri-
fy the count, and three (infirmaru) to collect the ballots
of the sick. Each elector received a sckedula, or voting
paper. The ballots were folded thrice. On the top of
the form were printed the words, "Ego cardinalis" and
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 641
there the elector wrote his name. On the middle were
the words, "Eligo in summum Fontificem Rm. Dm.
meum D. Card." (I elect for Sovereign Pontiff my most
Reverend Lord Cardinal ) . The name of the can-
didate for whom the elector wished to vote was written
here. At the bottom of the ballot, which was left empty,
the elector inscribed a device, which was not infrequently
a text of Scripture or a prayer. The top and bottom of
the ballot were then folded together, the bottom being
over the top, and were secured by a seal, which did not
betray the elector's identity.
Two designs were engraved on the reverse side. The
word "Nomen" was printed on the top one, meaning that
under it on the obverse side would be found the name of
the voter. The word "Signa" was on the lower, indicat-
ing that on the obverse would be found the voter's device.
These designs prevented the writing from being read
through the paper.
On the altar stood a chalice, in which the Cardinals,
advancing, deposited their ballots, one by one in due or-
der. Each kneeling, pronounced in Latin these words: 'T
call Christ our Lord, Who will judge me, to witness that I
elect the person who, before God, I think should be elected,
and which I shall make good in the vote of accession." *
* The vote of accession represents a second step, but by decision of
the Cardinals it was dispensed with in 1903. It is seldom that a can-
didate receives the required two-thirds majority on the first ballot. If
no candidate has received two-thirds, and the vote of accession is to
be taken, a second ballot begins immediately. Each of the electors now
marks his vote with the same device and number as before but in the
middle part of the voting paper the words are altered to read: "Accedo
Reverendis, D. mea D. Card." (I transfer my vote to my Lord Cardinal
.) If an elector wishes to vote as on the first ballot, he writes
"Nemini" after this, meaning: "I do not wish to transfer my vote to
any one." If the votes of accession combired with those of the first ballot
give any Cardinal the requisite majority, a minute verification begins.
642 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The ballots were burned at the end of each vote. If
there was no election a little damp straw was strewn on
the flames, which caused a thick column of dark smoke
{sfumata) to arise from the chimney. Thus the waiting
crowd in the piazza of St. Peter's knew that the Papacy-
was still vacant. After the scrutiny which showed that
a Pope had been chosen, the ballots were burned without
the straw and the white smoke conveyed the welcome
news to the multitude.
A grave difficulty in the choice of a new Pope pre-
sented itself to the Sacred College. Many of the mem-
bers desired the elevation of Cardinal RampoUa, Leo's
brilliant Secretary of State, who had spoken the mind
and executed the policies of that Pontiff, and to whose
skill and breadth of view Leo owed not a few of the suc-
cesses in diplomacy which he obtained. Rampolla, for
all his tact, had been no more wanting in courage than
his master. Austria, then the leading Catholic power,
feared that his friendship for France would be too much
in evidence if he rose to the Papacy, and his numerous
body of supporters in the conclave were weakened in their
stand by the impression that his election was impossible.
The difficulty which an aggressive Papal Secretary of
State must find in obtaining the equal good will of all the
powers is apparent.
By custom rather than law, but still a custom which,
previous to 1903, had possessed the weight of law, the
right of veto on the election of any one as Pope had been
conceded to the three principal Catholic powers, Aus-
tria, France and Spain, and they had sought to exercise it
not infrequently. There was a belief that if Rampolla's
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 643
election became probable, Austria would seize the oppor-
tunity to interpose directly.
Cardinals Serafino Vannutelli, Svampa and Gotti, each
of whom would have been considered a worthy successor
of Leo, also commanded considerable followings. The
general view among the electors before the balloting be-
gan was that Vannutelli would win. The result rein-
forced the credence given to the ancient saying: "He
who enters the conclave Pope, comes out Cardinal."
Svampa's name was associated with certain prophecies
attributed in recent times to the twelfth century St.
Malachy of Armagh, among which ''ignis ardens^' or
burning fire, was indicated for the successor of Leo.
Gotti was the Prefect of the Propaganda, called the
"Red Pope" on account of his power in that office, and
also the "Marble Cardinal" because he had worn the
white habit of a Carmelite monk.
One of those who had discussed with his colleagues
before the period of seclusion the chances of these prom-
inent candidates was Cardinal Sarto, the loved and sim-
ple-hearted Patriarch of Venice. It had not entered his
thoughts that he himself might be chosen to the Pontifi-
cate, and when he left his See to take part in the con-
clave he had bought a return ticket. To his amazement,
he received five votes on the first ballot. Turning to one
who was near him he said:
"The Cardinals are amusing themselves at my expense."
Rampolla led at the outset of the voting, and continued
to gain for some time. On the third scrutiny he received
twenty-nine votes, forty-two being necessary to elect.
Just before the fourth ballot, the expected veto of Aus-
644 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tria was communicated by the Archbishop of Cracow, but
Rampolla held his twenty-nine votes firmly. The Car-
dinals wished to indicate clearly that they desired to pre-
serve their freedom of action.
But Sarto had developed unexpected strength, and the
supporters of Rampolla began to lose heart more and
more. On the fifth ballot, still desiring to assert their
independence, they rallied again, and he received thirty
votes, his highest for the conclave, while Sarto received
twenty-seven.
Sarto now seemed positively frightened, and begged
the Cardinals not to think of him. His tears flowed
again as he exclaimed: "I beseech you to forget my
name." Cardinal Lecot having addressed a remark to
him in French, he replied that he did not understand that
language. With Gallic spirit, Lecot responded: "You
will never be Pope if you do not speak French." "Thanks
be to God I" exclaimed Sarto fervently.^
Though Rampolla had maintained and even increased
his vote, it was now evident that he would not be elected.
The appeals of Sarto could not be disregarded by his col-
leagues, and the situation had reached an impasse. All
of the Cardinals but Gibbons seemed to consider that the
election of the Patriarch of Venice was impossible. Gib-
bons sounded out the situation by questioning some of
them, and they agreed in the view that Sarto could no
longer be considered a candidate. He had positively
refused to accept any further support, and the situation
appeared to have fallen back to where it was when the
conclave had begun.
" Forbes, Life of Pius X, p. 62.
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 645
To Gibbons the developments of the conclave had but
one meaning. Sarto was the choice of the Cardinals, and
that choice must not be set aside. In his bare room, he
held a consultation with his long time friend and devoted
adherent, Satolli, and they canvassed the situation with
the gravest concern. Satolli, like the other Italian Car-
dinals, could see no available candidate, and he was
equally positive that it was impossible to persuade Sarto
to swerve from his decision.
Gibbons had great faith in the persuasive eloquence of
Satolli, and he felt that as a fellow-countryman of the
Patriarch of Venice no one was better fitted to induce
Sarto to turn aside from a decision that seemed irrevo-
cable. Many had pleaded with him, but Gibbons doubted
that these appeals had been carefully calculated as to
their effectiveness; and he decided to frame for himself a
speech to be addressed to Sarto, through the mouth of
Satolli, imploring him to lay aside his objections, and
urging upon him as a duty to submit to the will of Provi-
dence, sacrificing himself in the interest of religion. Sa-
tolli was firmly convinced that the project would be
futile, but he could refuse nothing that Gibbons asked,
and he promised to undertake the mission.
This state of mind on Satolli's part confirmed Gibbons
in his view of the necessity of framing his own argu-
ment to be presented, for he alone appeared to believe
that Sarto could still be persuaded. When Satolli ex-
claimed "What shall we do? — What can we do?" Gib-
bons replied :
"Cardinal Sarto must be made to accept. He must not
be allowed to refuse. Impress upon him with all the
646 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
force of that eloquence which you possess that he is the
choice of his colleagues; that God's will is being mani-
fested through them; that he must accept the sacrifice,
take up the burden, and God will give him the necessary
strength to guide the bark of Peter."
Gibbons elaborated the appeal and Satolli proceeded
to execute his delicate undertaking. Inspired by the ear-
nestness of Gibbons, he pressed home one argument after
another, until at length he induced Sarto to say that he
would accept election "as a cross."
Satolli reported his success to Gibbons, who proceeded
on the same night to call on Sarto and strengthen him in
his decision by pouring the balm of consolation upon his
troubled spirit. He assured the Pope-to-be that the
Church in America, with all her devotion and enthusiasm,
would be an element of strength to him, his glory and
his crown. Sarto never forgot that interview.
Gibbons requested Satolli to announce Sarto's accept-
ance to the conclave without delay, and the joyful news:
"He has consented" passed among the electors. Satolli
declared to the conclave that Sarto, yielding to the pres-
sure of his colleagues, had resigned himself to Providence.
On the next ballot, the sixth, he received thirty-five votes,
while Rampolla's vote fell to sixteen. On the seventh
ballot fifty votes were cast for Sarto, and he was elected.
After the election the canopies of all the thrones, ex-
cept Sarto's, were lowered, according to custom. He was
on the verge of prostration, and a deathly pallor over-
spread his countenance. Restoratives were administered
to him and at length he revived sufficiently to be robed
in the white cassock of a Pope. After he had chosen the
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 647
name of Pius, he removed his red zucchetto and presented
it to Archbishop Merry del Val, indicative of the future
elevation of that prelate to the Sacred College.
Gibbons saw, as he said, "the overruling action of the
Holy Ghost in those heterogeneous elements" that com-
posed the Sacred College, and upon leaving the Sistine
Chapel at the conclusion of the conclave he exclaimed:
"The finger of God is here."
Thus was the voice of an American, heard for the
first time in a Papal conclave, potent in bringing about a
decision. The hopelessness regarding Sarto's acceptance
which appeared to overpower the other Cardinals, was
foreign to Gibbons because he was never hopeless and
rarely despondent. It was not the first time that he had
brought a great result out of seeming failure. When other
men wavered, his natural disposition, as well as his judg-
ment, seemed to incline him to stand more firmly than
ever.
The Cardinals could not fail to recall the parallel to
the conclave of 1878 when Cardinal Pecci, the future
Leo XIII, had been on the point of pleading with the
Sacred College not to elect him. O'Reilly relates that
just before the voting began Pecci said to one of the
members of the Sacred College :
"I cannot control myself. I must address the Sacred
College. I fear that they are about to commit a sad
mistake. People think I am a learned man. They take
me as one possessing wisdom; but I am neither learned
nor wise. They suppose I have the necessary qualifi-
cations for a Pope ; I have nothing of the kind. That is
what I want to say to the Cardinals."
648 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The other Cardinal replied :
"As to your learning, we, not you, can best judge of
that. As to your qualifications for the Pontifical office,
God knows what they are; leave it all to Him."
Cardinal Pecci obeyed.*
On the evening of the day on which the conclave ended
Gibbons called on the new Pope and found that his agi-
tation had departed. A great inward calm sustained him.
Pius, who by that time had learned of the influences
which had operated within the conclave, welcomed the
American Cardinal with the deepest gratitude and affec-
tion. He accepted his elevation as due to the working
of Divine Providence, of which Gibbons had been an
instrument in saving him from holding out to the end, in
his deep humility, against the call to the Papacy.
Pius, in his thankfulness, would have granted almost
any request that Gibbons could have made, but the only
wish which the American Cardinal had to express at that
time was characteristic of him — one for a simple personal
service to others. Some American pilgrims were in Rome,
having started from their distant homes in the expecta-
tion of being received by Leo XIII. Now there was a
new Pope, but they were obliged to leave the city the
next day. Would Pius see them in their eagerness to be
among the first to behold the successor of Leo after his
elevation? They did not fully comprehend the difficulty
of granting their request, and they believed, like other
American Catholics, that Gibbons could accomplish al-
most anything.
The Cardinal knew of the preoccupations of the new
® O'Reilly, Life of Leo XIII, p. 310.
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 649
Pope on the second day of his reign. He knew that it
would be almost presumptuous to ask Pius to turn aside
from the mass of decisions that were pressing upon him
to receive any part of the group of pilgrims who are
nearly always in Rome, but his kind heart would not per-
mit his voice to frame the word "no" to his fellow-coun-
trymen. He decided to present the request to Pius,
knowing that the Pope would comply, if at all, only as
a favor to him and not as a favor to the American
visitors.
He found the Pope more than ready to do what he pro-
posed. Pius, notwithstanding the need of conserving and
regulating his time, when so many wished to see him
upon business that could not be deferred, replied in-
stantly that he would grant the request with pleasure "at
any time you suggest," thus giving the visit of the Ameri-
cans precedence over everything else that was immediately
before him. Gibbons responded:
"I shall be glad if you will receive them, your Holi-
ness, at any time which you may suggest."
"I will receive them to-morrow afternoon," replied
Pius, and he kept his word.
Gibbons accompanied the pilgrims into the Papal audi-
ence chamber. When he went forward to kiss the hand
of the Pontiff, as is customary, Pius would not permit it ;
in a burst of affection, he opened his arms, embraced Gib-
bons and kissed him on both cheeks.
Gibbons could not leave Rome without canvassing the
situation and prospects of the Church in America with
the new Pontiff, to whom he must now look for support.
He knew, of course, that Pius lacked the varied and ac-
650 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
curate knowledge of America which Leo had shown on
so many occasions, partly the result of the experience of
a quarter of a century in the Papacy, partly of an excep-
tional memory and partly also of his direct personal in-
terest in Gibbons and Gibbons' country throughout his
reign. To Pius, Venice had been the world; but he was
ready to face his new responsibilities with courage and de-
cision, and he wished now to learn what had seemed use-
less to him before.
He asked many questions of Gibbons ; said that he had
met few Americans, and that those with whom he had
come in contact had impressed him favorably; and ex-
pressed deep interest in the welfare of the country and
the character of its people. The Pope renewed his ex-
pressions of affection for the American Cardinal, who
had seen clearly when others in the recent conclave had
doubted. He seemed to feel that in Gibbons he had a
helper upon whom he could lean with implicit confidence,
at a time when the necessity was imposed upon him of
extreme care in weighing advice that was given him be-
fore accepting it.
Gibbons saw how necessary it was to enlist the interest
of Pius in the Catholic University, whose continued prog-
ress was dependent upon the favor of the head of the
Church, His heart was in his words as he pleaded for
"the child of his age," and Pius listened to him with
ready sympathy. The Pope acceded to the wish of Gib-
bons by promising that he would issue a brief in behalf
of the university, and would follow its development with
interest and whole-hearted support.
It was desired also that an exhibit of Vatican relics
INFLUENCE ON THE ELECTION OF PIUS X 651
should be prepared for the St. Louis Exposition soon to
be held in honor of the centennial of the Louisiana Pur-
chase, in which project the support of Gibbons had been
enlisted. One of the first Pontifical acts of Pius was to
direct that these relics be sent to St. Louis as a symbol
of the Papal favor for an observance that marked the
transfer to the American flag of a great region first pene-
trated by Catholic missionaries and explorers.
CHAPTER XXXVI
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME
After the tension of the Papal conclave and the events
which it had brought in its train, Gibbons felt the need
of recuperation. He spent several days at Castle Gan-
dolfo, the summer home of the American College, after
which he left Rome for Switzerland. At Territet, on
the Lake of Geneva, he remained for ten days as the guest
of Francis de Sales Jenkins, a member of a Catholic fam-
ily of Maryland identified with that State since the days
of the Calverts, among whose members were some of the
most devoted personal friends of Gibbons. This beau-
tiful home, which was called "The Villa Maryland," was
near the Castle of Chillon, made famous by Byron; and
there amid congenial surroundings the Cardinal was able
to regain his strength rapidly. From Territet, he pro-
ceeded to Houlgate, Normandy, where he was the guest
of Leopold Huffer for a time at the "Villa Columbia."
The extent of the Cardinal's influence upon the decision
of the conclave was not then known in America, nor in-
deed anywhere outside of a small circle in Rome. The
fact that he had been the first American to participate in
the election of a Pope was, however, sufficient in itself to
excite the keen interest of his fellow-countrymen; and
when he returned to Baltimore September 24 the city was
moved to acclaim him as never before. By this time he
652
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 653
had become beyond all doubt a popular hero in his own
country.
Even though the details of what he had accomplished
in behalf of his fellow-men were unknown or obscured
as a result of the secrecy which necessarily surrounded
many of his actions in inner councils, the people had
obtained in an indefinable way a true sense of what
he was and what he stood for. The admiration of Cath-
olic Americans for him was, of course, based chiefly upon
the fact that no man whom their country had contributed
to the Church had attained such influence as he in shaping
her weightier decisions. He was now before the world
in a clear light as one of the leaders of the Church who
stood with a small group at the head of all others in his
time; one of three, the others being Leo and Manning,
who had been most potent in guiding the Church
during Leo's reign; one whose American patriotism,
tried and true, presented in their minds an example
which few other men had ever presented, a patriotism
which had burned with a strong and steady light
so that all might see while statesmen and causes rose
and fell; one whose advocacy of the institutions of
his country inside and outside the Church had estab-
lished America in the eyes of Europeans in a posi-
tion which they had never before acknowledged her to
possess; the foremost influence in preventing the essential
integrity of American constitutional government from
being threatened by the sudden wave of immigration
which had caused alarm to some of the stoutest souls.
He stood before them now as a friend and counselor of
Popes and Presidents, of churchmen and statesmen in
654 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
high places; above all, as one who spoke sanely and
calmly and convincingly upon the larger questions that
divided the thoughts of men, and whose voice Americans
were readier to hear with respect and approval than any
other voice in the land.
Thus, while there was inevitable obscurity in the pub-
lic mind regarding the processes by which the Catholic
Church in the deliberations of her foremost leaders shapes
her decrees intended to elevate the lives of men, and while
many of Gibbons' acts of participation in decisions of
State relating to his own country shared that obscurity,
the people seemed to have formed the same judgment of
him as if they had known all. They rated him for what
he was and, as Americans always do, rated him largely
for character. Non-Catholics shared with Catholics their
complete confidence in his sincerity and earnestness, no
less than in the striking ability which alone could have
enabled him to attain what they saw he had attained.
In the eyes of Americans he stood almost isolated as a
sage and a patriot; as one raised to a height and yet living
and moving among his fellow countrymen without vanity
or pomp as one of them, sharing in the trials and prob-
lems of the humblest as well as the greatest, a servant of
God and a friend of mankind.
If the test of a man be the esteem in which he is held
at home by those who know him best, surely no one met
that test more fully than Gibbons. To Baltimore he had
become the beloved first citizen. His fame overshadowed
the city and in their affection for him, unrestrained by
arbitrary boundaries of creed, the people of Baltimore
felt that they shared in that fame. When any great ac-
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 655
complishment was to be undertaken by his neighbors, they
thought of him first. His name must head the list of
those to whom they would look for discriminating ap-
proval and powerful support. In their eyes he embodied
the loftiest type which they could produce, the citizen
par excellence^ the master spirit who walked among them
and yet who walked so simply that they felt that he was
brother as well as chief.
The city could not be restrained in its exuberance when
he returned from the conclave. When he arrived at the
railroad station, Mayor McLane and a full representation
of the civic authorities were waiting to receive him, while
outside the building dense crowds filled the air with a din
of cheering similar to that which would have marked the
visit of a President. The Mayor expressed the feelings
of all in the following speech of greeting:
"Your Eminence has already received a most hearty
welcome, most properly extended to you on your arrival
in this country by the members of the society in which
you have shown so much interest, and to whose success
you have contributed so much. It becomes my pleasant
duty to extend to you a wider welcome, which embraces
the citizens of Baltimore generally, of all creeds and
conditions, who, one and all, cherish the deepest rever-
ence and respect for your great and noble character.
"When the news of the death of the Pope reached us,
it was received with a feeling of apprehension by us on
account of the arduous strain of your great responsibilities
in a trying climate, and we feared its influence upon your
health, and the sympathies of the entire community went
out to you. To see you return in good health is a great
pleasure, and, in behalf of my fellow-citizens of Balti-
more, I extend to you a most hearty welcome and the
656 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
best wishes of the entire community for a long life of
perfect happiness."
Judge Heuisler, a Catholic, spoke in the name of the
members of his faith, when he said :
"It is true, your Eminence, and happy am I to say it,
that all the people of America appreciate you, revere you,
and love you for the work that you have done ; and this
greeting, while with us but local, will be heard with
pleasure and with sympathy in all sections of our com-
mon country. In the presence of profound emotions, all
hearts must speak from out the window of the soul; the
eye must flash the welcome and the lips be dumb; and I
will say no more. Cead mille fcdlthe — a hundred thou-
sand welcomes."
The Cardinal, greatly moved, responded with a few
words of thanks voiced from the depths of his soul.
He had been informed of the program of welcome be-
fore his arrival in the city, and, accompanied by the city
officials and others, took his place in a carriage in the
line of a great parade of church and civic organizations
which escorted him to the Cathedral. Every window
along the street was crowded with people who applauded.
After the American fashion, he bowed continuously as
his carriage moved slowly along, and did not fail to ac-
knowledge the numerous salutes from personal friends,
bestowing a smile upon each of them whom he recognized
in the crowds.
Arriving at the Cathedral, a group of young women,
dressed in white and carrying American flags, greeted
him and one of them presented to him a bouquet of sixty-
nine roses, one for each year of his life. Taking his place
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 657
upon the portico of the Cathedral, with the Mayor beside
him, he reviewed the parade.
After the procession was over the Cardinal entered the
Cathedral and spoke simply to his friends and neighbors.
He told them of his travels; of some of his experiences
in Rome ; and did not fail to mention that the American
pilgrims had been the first to be received by the new
Pontiff.
"And now," he remarked, "I am most happy to be
home again."
He commended the new Pope to the prayers of all,
and bestowed his blessing upon the multitude. Solemn
benediction followed. Proceeding to his residence in the
rear of the church, he found another cheering crowd
massed in front of it, and was obliged to appear at the
bay window from which he so often reviewed parades and
from which now he expressed his thanks for the ovation.
It had long been his custom after returning from trips
abroad to preach at the Cathedral upon his experiences.
On Sunday, October 4, a great congregation assembled
to hear a sermon from him in which he gave his impres-
sions of the Papal conclave. As always at the Cathedral
during his long tenure as Archbishop, hundreds of Prot-
estants were present when he preached.
He began by saying that twelve nations had been rep-
resented by the sixty-two Cardinals who had taken part
in the conclave, and that "this was the first time in the
history of the Christian religion that the United States,
or any part of this western hemisphere, was ever associ-
ated with the other nations of Christendom in selecting
a successor to the Prince of the Apostles. He added :
658 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"I should not be surprised if in the next conclave the
Catholic Church of the United States were to be repre-
sented by several members of the Sacred College, so that
the number of Cardinals from our country may be com-
mensurate with the population, the grandeur and the
commanding influence of the nation, and may be in keep-
ing also with the numerical strength of our Hierarchy
and laity and the splendor and progress of our religious
and charitable institutions." ^
The Cardinal spoke of the "high order of intelligence,
great discretion, large experience, and integrity of char-
acter" which had marked the Cardinals as he had ob-
served them, and added:
"The Cardinals, however, are not angels, but men, sub-
ject to the usual infirmities and temptations of flesh and
blood. And because they are not exempt from the frail-
ties incident to mankind, and because of the peerless dig-
nity of the Supreme Pontificate, as well as of the tremen-
dous responsibility it involves, every precaution that
human ingenuity and experience could suggest had been
availed of in this, as in preceding conclaves, so that no
cloud should rest over the election of the successful can-
didate.
"I was present at the conclave and took part in its
proceedings, and without revealing its secrets, I can most
positively assure you and the American people that the
election of the Pope was conducted with absolute free-
dom, with the utmost fairness and impartiality, and with
a dignity and solemnity becoming the august assemblage
of the Sacred College, and the momentous consequences
of their suffrages."
* At the time of the election of Benedict XV, the successor of Pius X,
there were four American Cardinals, counting Cardinal Falconio, who
was an American citi/en.
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 659
Gibbons carefully omitted to mention his own part in
the solution of the deadlock which had confronted the
conclave when the election of Rampolla became impos-
sible and Sarto had refused to accept elevation. He told
of Sarto's plea "that you shall forget my name," and
remarked :
"All were moved by the modesty and the transparent
sincerity of the man. When he resumed his seat, his
cheeks were suffused with blushes, tears were gushing
from his eyes, and his body trembled with emotion.
Never did a prisoner make greater efforts to escape from
his confinement than did Cardinal Sarto to escape from
the yoke of the Papacy. With his Divine Master, he
exclaimed: 'Father, if it be possible, let this chalice
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be
done I' When his election was officially announced, his
florid countenance assumed a deathly pallor and restora-
tives were applied to save him from fainting."
He characterized the new Pontiff as "a man of God
and a man of the people," adding that the virtues of
humility, sincerity, candor and benevolence were stamped
upon his features.
Gibbons proceeded to point out that the Papacy was
the most ancient of all existing dynasties. He continued :
"The influence of the Papacy is more far-reaching than
that of any earthly ruler. Kings and emperors and civil
magistrates exact external compliance with the laws of
the land. They cannot control the sanctuary of the heart.
The Sovereign Pontiff, though he has no army to enforce
his commands, makes and interprets laws which bind the
consciences of men.
"The rule of the successors of Peter has been the most
660 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
beneficent in the cause of civilization and humanity.
When the Roman Empire was dissolved, the ark of the
Church, under the guidance of the Sovereign Pontiifs,
floated triumphantly on the troubled waters beneath
which the monuments of centuries had lain entombed.
"The Papacy has contributed more than any civil gov-
ernment to the intellectual progress of mankind. If
Europe is today immeasurably in advance of Asia, in
literature, in the arts and sciences, is it not because
Europe was more in touch than Asia with the Roman Pon-
tiff, and felt the impress of his strong but tender hand*?
"Were it not for the unceasing vigilance of the Bishops
of Rome, the crescent instead of the Cross would have sur-
mounted the domes and temples of Europe; Mohamme-
danism instead of Christianity would be the dominant
religion of that continent, and our fathers who came from
Europe would have brought with them their religion and
their laws from the Koran instead of the Bible.
"Among the Pontiffs who have sat in the Chair of
Peter for the last three centuries, Leo XIII, whom Pius
X succeeded, stands pre-eminent. He has indelibly
stamped the impress of his name and genius on the civ-
ilized world. He has written Encyclicals to the nations
of Christendom, treating on the most momentous subjects
of the day. He has dealt not with abstract or speculative
questions, but with topics affecting the social and politii
cal as well as the moral and religious well-being of the
world. He has conclusively shown that he was always
in touch with humanity and could say with the Roman
of old: ""Nil humani a ?ne aliejium putd''' — 'Every sub-
ject affecting the interests of mankind is dear to me.'
"Need we therefore wonder that Leo's name was re-
vered and loved not only by his own spiritual children,
but also by persons of every creed, and by every man
who had at heart the uplifting of his fellow-being'?
"While living, he was everywhere honored because his
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 661
words were a tower of strength in the cause of Christian-
ity and stable government. Kings, emperors, and princes
of every belief vied with one another in paying homage to
him and in visiting him. But what he more esteemed, he
was loved and cherished by the sovereign people.
"Leo has lifted up the Catholic Church to a higher
plane of dignity and strength than it had attained since
the days of Leo X. He has infused new life into. the mis-
sionary world. He has quickened with renewed zeal
every Bishop, priest and layman that fell within the scope
of his influence. He has left to his successor the pre-
cious heritage of a blameless life and an Apostolic char-
acter.
"What a subject of profound reflection is presented
by the contrast between the funeral rites of the late Pon-
tiff and the coronation of his successor ! All that was left
on earth of the great Leo at his obsequies were his emaci-
ated and shrivelled remains. That voice which had
thrilled millions throughout the world was hushed for-
ever. Those hands which were daily raised to bless lay
motionless on his breast. The same liturgical prayers
were chanted, and the same sacrifice of propitiation was
offered for him that are employed in behalf of the hum-
blest layman. Supplications were poured forth to the
Throne of Grace, not for Leo the saint, nor Leo the
scholar and statesman, but for Leo the humble penitent,
who like all the children of Adam, could be saved only
through the redeeming merits of Jesus Christ."
Gibbons described the scene when a newly elected Pon-
tiff is borne in triumph into St. Peter's basilica, when a
master of ceremonies goes before him with a wand to
which is attached a vase containing burning tow, crying
out from time to time ''Sic transit gloria mundir He
concluded :
662 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"I am sure, however, that the humble Pontiff did not
need this reminder, nor was he elated or dazzled by the
splendor of the pageant; but, like his Master who wept
on entering in triumph the city of Jerusalem, Pius was
overwhelmed by the contemplation of the heavy cross he
was destined to bear through life. . . .
"What a commentary is all this on the vanity of
human glory! How eloquently it proclaims the truth
that God alone is great, and that nothing can satisfy
man's ambition except that which is eternal."
Pius issued the promised brief in behalf of the Catholic
University among the first state papers produced in the
course of his reign. It was dated September 9, 1903,
and addressed to Gibbons as chancellor of the institution.
Gibbons had asked him to sanction the proposal that a
collection be taken up in all the churches throughout the
United States annually for ten years on the first Sunday
in Advent, or the first convenient Sunday thereafter, for
the support of the University. Pius, in his brief, gave his
hearty sanction to this plan for "enhancing the dignity
and enlarging the influence of this noble seat of learn-
ing." He declared it to be his earnest wish that the
Bishops and laity should "labor strenuously for the good
of the university."
Pius wrote several times to Gibbons that the American
Cardinal's prediction that the Church in the United
States would be one of the greatest sources of consolation
to him during his term in the supreme Pontificate had not
only been verified, but that the results had far exceeded
his anticipations.
The Pope repeated this personally a few years later
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 663
when Gibbons visited Rome ^ before attending the Inter-
national Eucharistic Congress in London, at which he
had been invited to preach. Soon after his arrival in
the Eternal City, on that occasion, Gibbons was greeted
by two hundred Americans who happened to be there on
a pilgrimage. Later in an audience with Pius, he went
over current problems of the Church in America, and the
Pope conveyed his warm appreciation of the progress that
had been attained.
The viewpoint of Pius, Gibbons found, was still that
of the ecclesiastic, rather than that of the statesman, in
contrast to Leo, with whom he had weathered so many
storms. The man who now ruled as Pope appeared to
be unchanged in his personality by his experiences in
that office. He deplored his confinement in the Vatican,
and expressed his keen regret that he was never again to
see the Venetian canals. His sympathy and support were
still as freely extended as before to the Cardinal who had
done so much to bring about his election. When in the
course of Gibbons' visit to Rome he was stricken with a
serious temporary ailment incident to the climate, while
spending a short time at the summer home of the Ameri-
can College, the Pope sent an expression of deep sym-
pathy and asked to be constantly informed of his
condition.
Gibbons recovered fully in a short time. After a rest
in Switzerland, where he was the guest of Benziger, the
artist, at Brunnen, on Lake Lucerne, he was able to pro-
ceed to London, where he preached in Westminster Cathe-
dral on the last day of the Eucharistic Congress, Septem-
'1908.
664. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ber 13, a sermon which was one of the principal events
of that gathering. He exhorted fraternity between Eng-
lish and American Catholics, saying:
"Maryland, the mother of the Church in the United
States, was founded by English Catholics. Leonard
Calvert, the brother of Lord Baltimore, and the leader
of the English Catholic colony, desirous of securing
liberty of worship for his co-religionists, sailed with them
from Cowes, Isle of Wight, in the Ark and Dove — fitting
messengers to carry the fortunes of the pioneer pilgrims.
They reached their destination on the banks of the
Potomac, in 1634.
"This colony of British Catholics was the first to es-
tablish on American soil the blessings of civil and reli-
gious liberty. While the Puritans of New England perse-
cuted other Christians, and while the Episcopalians of
Virginia persecuted Catholics and Puritans, Catholic
Maryland gave freedom and hospitality to Puritans and
Episcopalians alike. In the words of Bancroft :
" ' The foundation of the colony of Maryland was
peacefully and happily laid. Within six months it had
advanced more than Virginia had done in as many years.
. . . But far more memorable was the character of the
Maryland institutions. Every other country in the world
had persecuting laws; but through the benign adminis-
tration of the government of that province, no person
professing to believe in Jesus Christ was permitted to be
molested on account of religion. Under the munificence
and superintending mildness of Lord Baltimore, a dreary
wilderness was soon quickened with swarming life and
the activity of prosperous settlements : the Roman Catho-
lics, who were oppressed by the laws of England, were
sure to find a peaceful asylum in the quiet harbors of the
Chesapeake; and there, too, Protestants were sheltered
from Protestant intolerance. Such were the beautiful
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 665
auspices under which Maryland started into being. Its
history is the history of benevolence, gratitude, and tolera-
tion.' "
Gibbons went on to describe "the chain of hallowed
associations" between the Catholic Church of England
and that of America. He recalled that Carroll, the first
American Bishop, had been consecrated in 1790 in the
chapel of Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire, the seat of
Thomas Weld, and that one of the acolytes who had
served on that occasion had been a son of the master of
the castle, who afterwards became Cardinal Weld. The
Rev. Charles Plowden, of the Society of Jesus, an inti-
mate friend of Carroll, had preached the consecration
sermon in which he had foreshadowed the growth and
development of the Church in America with a vision
which Gibbons called prophetic. The American Car-
dinal continued:
"But there are other and higher reasons than personal
friendship to justify the participation by American prel-
ates in the ceremonies of today. Though we are sepa-
rated from you by an immense ocean, we are united with
you, thank God, in the heritage of a common faith. We,
across the Atlantic, claim, as well as you, to be the spir-
itual children of Gregory, Augustine and Patrick, of
Alban and Venerable Bede, of Anselm and Thomas of
Canterbury, of Peter and Pius; we have with you one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
"Indeed, our kinship is stronger and more enduring
than that which is created by flesh and blood. When I
entered your Cathedral this morning, I could say to you
all, in the name of my countrymen, and in the language
of the Apostle of the Gentiles : 'We are no more strangers
666 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and foreigners, but we are fellow citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God, built upon the foundation
of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief cornerstone.' This sentiment inspires me with
confidence, and makes me feel at home; for, I am ad-
dressing you as brothers in the faith, and I can speak to
you with all the warmth and affection of the same
Apostle : 'My mouth is open to you,' fellow-Catholics of
England, 'my heart is enlarged.'
"But we inherit not only the traditions of your Chris-
tian faith; we inherit also the traditions of your civil
and political freedom. The great charter of liberty,
which Cardinal Langton of Canterbury and the English
Barons wrested from King John, on the plains of Runny-
mede, is the basis of our constitutional liberties. We
share with you in the fruit of your victories.
"We have not only a common heritage of civil and
political freedom, but we also speak the same language —
the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare, of Pope and
Dryden, of Tennyson and Newman. The steady growth
of the Church in the English-speaking world, during the
last three centuries, is truly gratifying, and may be con-
sidered phenomenal. For, whereas, in the sixteenth
century the number of English-speaking Bishops was
considerably under thirty there are now upwards of two
hundred Bishops ruling dioceses where English is the pre-
vailing language."
Gibbons commented upon the remarkable proportions
of the Catholic revival in England in the century just
passed, saying:
"I may add that if the Catholic Church is now viewed
with so much respect and benevolence by the people of
England, this circumstance may be ascribed in no small
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 667
measure to the fact that the Catholic Hierarchy, and es-
pecially the three Cardinals who have ruled the diocese
of Westminster, have not only deported themselves as
devoted churchmen, but that they had taken a personal,
loyal, vital interest in every measure that contributed to
the moral, social and economic welfare of their beloved
country.
''Over fifty years ago, after the re-establishment of
the English Catholic Hierarchy, at the synod of Oscott,
the illustrious Dr. Newman preached a sermon on the
'Second Spring,' in which, in his own matchless style and
silvery voice, he spoke of the hopes and prospects of the
Church in England, after the winter of her tribulations
had passed away. Had God spared him to our day, with
what eloquence could he portray to you how the Spring
had bloomed and ripened into Summer ; and, as a proof of
this development, he could point to this mystical tree of
life, under whose stately arches we are all assembled,
spreading its branches far and wide, so that from hence-
forth thousands may be sheltered beneath its ample
shade, and be nourished by its perennial fruit of grace
and sanctification."
Though Gibbons had been impressed that Summer had
followed the "Second Spring" for English Catholics
which Newman had forecast so eloquently, he could not
help observing differences which still lingered between
the attitude toward the Church in his own country, and
that taken even among so enlightened a people as the
English. On the day when he preached, it had been
intended to carry the Host in the procession through the
streets; but fearing disturbances. Premier Asquith inter-
posed, and the program was changed.
Gibbons remained in England for a short time, being
668 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the guest of the Duke of Norfolk and receiving other
social honors. Five years had elapsed since Baltimore
had given him a public reception, and the city's appetite
was whetted for a new outburst of that kind. Gibbons
did his best to prevent it and wrote home an earnest re-
quest that the plans be abandoned; but so great was the
desire to testify the unique esteem in which he was held
by his neighbors of all religious faiths, that despite his
own desires the preparations moved forward with re-
doubled energy. When he learned that the State of
Maryland, as well as the city, was to share in the recep-
tion through its officials, he was somewhat reconciled to
the plan and reluctantly assented.
Arriving in Baltimore Saturday, October lo, he was
greeted by a committee, including Governor Crothers and
his staff, Mayor Mahool and the City Council, Charles J.
Bonaparte, then Attorney General of the United States,
and other prominent persons. The Governor, a Method-
ist, and the Mayor, an active layman of the Presbyterian
Church, hailed him with laudatory speeches. He replied,
as usual, in words of simple kindliness and thankfulness,
saying :
"I am profoundly moved by this expression of kind-
ness. I have no words to convey the deep gratitude that
fills my heart. When I learned for the first time of this,
I wrote back to Baltimore, requesting and directing that
it be abandoned, as I saw no occasion for it ; but when I
learned that it came from all the people, and that the
Governor of this liberty-loving State was to take part in
it, and the Mayor of this city, which I love so dearly, I
waived all personal feelings."
NEW OVATIONS AT HOME 669
Again there was a public parade to the Cathedral, in
which 15,000 persons took part, including 500 from
Washington, the capital city being a part of Gibbons'
jurisdiction as Archbishop of Baltimore. The signifi-
cance of the scene could not be forgotten by any one who
looked upon the Cardinal standing upon the portico of
that beautiful building, the greatest shrine of Catholic
memories in America, with the executive officers of State
and city massed around him reviewing the procession, all
joining in a tribute no less of neighborly love than of
profound respect for the slender figure in the red robe
who was the center of it all. Within the edifice the
Cardinal gave solemn benediction and the Papal blessing.
Honors were now beginning to be paid him by those
among whom he had labored with signal success in the
earlier days of his career. Though a national figure, he
had always had a singular faculty of taking root wherever
he was stationed. Not the least of those who held him
in grateful memory were North Carolinians, many of
whom then living could recall the days when, in their
own state as a missionary Bishop, he had exemplified
those greater traits which had made him one of the prin-
cipal figures of the world. The North Carolina Society
of Baltimore, most of whose members were Protestants,
joined with his other fellow-citizens in the tribute of
welcome, and presented to him an engrossed address con-
veying warm compliments and grateful praise.
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM
Gibbons was one of the first to detect signs of the
sudden drift toward Socialism in America, which coin-
cided with the advent of the twentieth century. He
knew that in every country where the sun shines and the
rain descends and where men eat bread in the sweat of
their brows, there were bound to be lean years as well as
fat years, and that the leap in the population of the
United States had immensely widened the circle of those
upon whom the burden of periodical scarcity must weigh.
That any large proportion of those who dwelt under the
flag to which he and they owed allegiance should rush
heedlessly, from the pressure of temporary conditions,
into ill-considered, and, above all, anti-Christian experi-
ments, would be, in his mind, an evil of the first magni-
tude. In the preservation of the calmness and sane
balance of the people, he saw the only permanent safe-
guard of democratic institutions.
Sensing the situation in advance, he felt that the
Church here must be aroused to resist the threatened
danger. His position in the Church in America was
such that if counter action against Socialism was to come,
he must lead it in order to give it effectiveness. Pius IX,
the first Pope to come in contact with modern Socialism,
670
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 671
had'condemned it both in principle and in definite details.
Leo XIII had done the same thing, and in his encyclicals
Quod Apostolici Muneris and Rerum Novarutn had set
forth in clear terms the resistance of Christianity to the
pure materialism which was the professed ideal of the
Marxians.
In the first of these encyclicals, issued soon after his
accession to the Pontificate in 1878, Leo declared that
"although the Socialists, turning to evil use the Gospel
itself so as to deceive more readily the unwary, have been
wont to twist it to their meaning, still so striking is the
disagreement between their criminal teachings and the
pure doctrine of Christ that no greater can exist." He set
forth that "equality among men consists in this, that one
and all, possessing the same nature, are called to the
sublime dignity of being sons of God; and, moreover, that
one and the same end being set before all, each and every
one has to be judged according to the same laws, and to
have punishments or rewards meted out according to in-
dividual deserts. There is, however, an inequality of
right and authority which emanates from the Author of
nature Himself."
He declared that "the State, like the Church, should
form one body comprising many members, some excelling
others in rank and importance, but all alike necessary to
one another ahd solicitous for the common welfare."
The encyclical Rerum Novarum was the one in which
Leo, while taking direct issue with Socialism as a remedy
for the ills of the working classes, reflected and fully
endorsed the views of the right of labor to organize for
bettering its economic condition which had been set forth
672 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in Gibbons' masterly plea in behalf of the Knights of
Labor. He declared that the Socialists in contending
that individual possessions should become the common
property of all, to be administered by the State or muni-
cipal bodies, were "working on the poor man's envy of
the rich." If the system which they proposed were ac-
tually set up, he held, "the workingman himself would
be among the first to suffer." He rejected their proposals
as "emphatically unjust, because they would rob the law-
ful possessor, bring State action into a sphere not within
its competence, and create utter confusion in the com-
munity." The program of "class war" boldly proclaimed
by the Socialists was, of course, the antithesis of the basis
of Christianity for, as Leo declared:
"If Christian precepts prevail, the respective classes
will not only be united in the bonds of friendship, but
also in those of brotherly love. For they will under-
stand and feel that all men are children of the same
common Father, who is God; that all have alike the same
last end, which is God himself, who alone can make
either men or angels absolutely and perfectly happy."
Leo set forth that "private ownership is in accordance
with the law of nature." He declared that the Socialists'
plan "would throw open the door to envy, to mutual
invective, and to discord," adding:
"The sources of wealth themselves would run dry,
for no one would have any interest in exerting his
talents or his industry; and that ideal equality about
which they entertain pleasant dreams, would be in reality
the leveling down of all to a like condition of misery and
degradation."
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 673
Pius X had followed Leo in condemning Socialism.
The philosophers and theologians of the Church upheld
the view of the Pontiffs unanimously, as did experts of
the Catholic laity on economics and sociology. Their
primary view was that there was an antagonism between
Christianity and the principle of Socialism. In every
Catholic country they found Socialism anti-Christian in
both theory and practise; and they held that convincing
evidence of this was afforded by the utterances of the
organs and speakers who spread the propaganda of the
new cult.
No Socialist could have been animated by a greater de-
sire to uplift the working classes than Gibbons; but in
starting out to seek remedies, he took the road leading to
God, and the Socialist, in his eyes, took the road leading
away from God. He did not wish to condemn, of course,
all the views which some Socialists expressed, but the
fundamental, subversive doctrines of Marxism held by
most American Socialists appalled him as the negation
of Divine law, justice and reason. He had shown himself
ready to defend, against the most powerful opposition,
the right of labor to combine for its protection, and he
had advocated legislation that would safeguard labor's
interests. This predisposed him all the more to solicitude
in saving the workingman from destroying the fruits of
the struggle in labor's behalf by wandering off in pursuit
of impractical remedies which invoked its name.
Besides, he suspected that, so far as America was con-
cerned, many propagandists of Socialism used it as a mask
behind which to hide a sullen hostility to the institutions
of the United States. For many years after Socialism
674 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
had become a political force in Europe it had gained but
the slenderest foothold of importance in the United
States. Not until 1889 was the Socialist-Labor Party-
organized at Chicago, and its first Presidential candidate
was put forward in the election in 1892. In that year the
party could command only 21,164 votes out of the mil-
lions of electors by whose suffrages Mr. Cleveland was
chosen. Four years later, it was again in the field with a
candidate for President who received 36,274 votes.
With the birth of the Social Democracy of America in
1897, which absorbed a considerable portion of the So-
cialist-Labor Party, the Socialist Party as it has since
been known in the United States came into being. In
the Presidential election of 1900 the Social-Democratic
Party poHed 87,814 votes, and the Socialist-Labor Party
39,739. Despite the large proportionate increase in this
showing of strength, there was nothing particularly dis-
concerting in the figures. But when the Socialists polled
402,283 votes in the election of 1904, Gibbons read the
signs of the times and prepared to throw the whole force
of the Church against the further progress of the move-
ment.
It was evident to him that at last the Socialists had
become the nucleus of extreme discontent in the United
States, as well as elsewhere, and this meant more than he
or any other man could fathom. Both his duty to religion
and his duty to his country, it appeared to him, impelled
him to summon the most powerful influence available in
order to stifle the movement before it could attain a de-
gree of strength which might be considered a formidable
obstacle to the orderly progress of America.
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 675
He was not unmindful that there was an element of
support for the movement from native Americans, but he
saw with misgivings that the great majority of its adher-
ents in this country were men of foreign birth who had
been disappointed in illusions cherished in their imagina-
tive minds about the meaning of that equality of oppor-
tunity which was the American ideal. Seeing still with
European eyes, herded together by force of circumstances,
which Gibbons deplored, with men of their own kind in
the larger cities of America, they abated none of the re-
sentment against existing conditions which they had
felt in their diverse home lands.
Gibbons, as always in setting out to accomplish a large
object, seized the opportune time. Thoughts of the
growth of Socialism filled his mind as preparations were
made to celebrate in 1906 the centenary of the laying of
the cornerstone of the Baltimore Cathedral and the twen-
ty-fifth anniversary of his accession to the archbishopric.
His own anniversary was on October 3, 1902, and he had
been urged in the early part of that year to consent to
an imposing celebration of the event in conformity with
the custom of the Church. To be the central figure in
another demonstration at which praise would be showered
upon him by no means accorded with his wishes. He felt
that his share of such things had already been too much,
not knowing that the greatest of them, despite his own
desires, were still to come.
In his humility he wished to put aside thoughts of
self, lest his mind be diverted from the intense striving
which seemed always to lead him on, no less at the age of
sixty-eight years than in his earlier days. How to avoid
676 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
a celebration in 1902 without offending many who wished
to do him honor was indeed a problem of no little diffi-
culty; but at last he had a thought that solved it. He
would combine his silver jubilee as Archbishop with the
centenary of his dearly loved Cathedral, which he had
come to feel was a part of himself. Reluctantly his plan
was accepted by those who had been eager to make a
great fete of his jubilee; but when the date of the Cathe-
dral centenary drew near, it was found that he had care-
fully eliminated his own personality from the program.
It was fitting that Gibbons should speak through others
at the celebration itself, and he delivered his own mes-
sage in advance of that event. Preaching in the Cathedral
February 4, 1906, he declared his position and that of
the Church with regard to Socialism in a manner which
riveted the attention of the nation. Inequality of rank,
station and wealth, he said, were inevitable. The much-
discussed statement in the Declaration of Independence
that "all men are created equal," he interpreted to mean
that all men are subject to the same political and moral
laws; that all enjoy the same air and rain and sunshine
of heaven and that all are equal before the law. He ex-
claimed :
"The most mischievous and dangerous individual to be
met with in the community is the demagogue, who is
habitually sowing broadcast the seeds of discontent
among the people. He is disseminating the baneful doc-
trines of Socialism, which would bring all men down to
a dead level, would paralyze industry and destroy all
healthy competition. . . . He has not the capacity to
discern that after all due allowance is made for human
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 677
energy, this varied condition of society must result from
a law of life established by an overruling Providence."
In studying the material world, he said, he had been
deeply impressed to observe that all the works of God
were marked with the stamp of variety and inequality.
The Almighty never cast any two creatures in the same
mold. He continued :
"Ascending from the natural to the spiritual world,
from the order of nature to the order of grace, we know
there is not only variety, but that there are also grades
of distinction among the angels in heaven. The angelic
Hierarchy is composed of nine distinct choirs. There are
angels and archangels, thrones and dominations, princi-
palities and powers, virtues, cherubim and seraphim.
These angelic hosts ascend in rank, one above the other.
One order of angels excels in sublimity of intelligence, or
in intensity of love, or in the dignity of the mission as-
signed to them.
"And, in like manner, God is unequal in the distribu-
tion of his graces to mankind. He gives in large measure
to one and in less measure to another. To one He grants
five talents, to another He grants two, and to another He
gives one talent. When the Divine Husbandman hires
His laborers to work in His vineyard, He recompenses
those who labored but one hour as much as He does those
'who have borne the burden of the day and the heat.'
The reward is altogether disproportioned to the toil. If
you complain of God's discrimination, Christ will answer
you: 'My friend, I do thee no wrong. Take what is
thine and go thy way. Is it not lawful for me to do what
I will? Is thine eye evil because I am good? What
claim have you on my justice? Is not all that you pos-
678 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
sess of nature or of grace the gratuitous gift of my
bounty^' . . .
"Nevertheless, among God's elect there is no jealousy
or discontent. Those who enjoy a high grade of bliss do
not look with disdain on their inferiors; and those who
are in a lower grade of felicity do not envy those above
them. All are happy and contented, and praise the God
of bounty for his gratuitous mercies.
"There is a tendency in our nature to chafe under
authority. Thomas Paine published a well-known work
on The Rights of Man.' He had nothing to say on the
rights of God and the duties of man. A certain clergy-
man wrote a volume some years ago on 'The Rights of
the Clergy.' From the beginning to the end of the work
he said nothing on the duties and obligations of the
clergy. The majority of mankind are so intent on their
rights that they have no consideration for their responsi-
bilities. If all of us had a deep sense of our sacred duties,
we should not fail to come by our rights."
The surroundings under which this dominant note of
the Cathedral celebration was amplified at the event it-
self on Sunday, April 29, were such as to give it the ut-
most force as a declaration by the Catholic Church in
America. Archbishop Falconio, who had succeeded Mar-
tinelli as Papal Delegate, nine other Archbishops, fifty-
six Bishops, four Abbots and about eight hundred priests
assembled at the fountain head of the mother See. Arch-
bishop Glennon, the gifted head of the archdiocese of St.
Louis, preaching at the service of pontifical vespers on
that day, voiced the thoughts of all that gathering of
leaders when he said:
"The social fabric appears today to be in imminent
danger, because old principles are ignored and old founda-
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 679
tions are attacked. What was held as law, is regarded
now as injustice; what was held as government, is now
deemed tyranny. It were folly to deny that the shadow
of Socialism is hanging over the land, and, while learned
men are busy pointing out its unreasonableness, its injus-
tice, its lack of feasibility, the shadow deepens. And yet
we fear not. The Church has a message for these com-
ing years. Standing by that Cross, the Church would
teach an equality that mere forms of poverty and wealth
could not affect."
Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, the preacher at the
Pontifical Mass with which the celebration was opened,
dealt with the general subject of social discontent from
another angle, by freely admitting the existence of seri-
ous evils in America which needed to be corrected, and
in the correction of which Catholics were ready to share
fully. He said :
"We justly laud the institutions and spirit of our coun-
try, but indiscriminate praise is no evidence of genuine,
rational patriotism. On the contrary, it is often danger-
ous and holds out false security. . . . Marvelous as has
been our progress in a single century, there is the greater
need to preserve what we have gained and to correct
where we have been deficient. Some have stated, and
with a show of reason, that our leading, radical fault has
been, and is, love of money, amounting to national ava-
rice, and our eagerness in both the natural and religious
order should be directed to neutralize or, at least, to mod-
erate this tendency.
"But I can not believe that love of money is the pre-
dominant fault of the American people. They are too
noble and generous a people to be a nation of misers.
They freely give what they freely get, and are often prod-
igal in their generosity. No, I believe that ambition,
680 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pride and inordinate independence and self-reliance are
our most dangerous foes. Humility is becoming a name
for pious weakness, and ambition is no longer a sin. The
desire to be unknown is considered foolishness. . . .
"There are three great and increasing evils in our day —
one affecting the individual ; the second, the family, and
the third, the state. I mean suicide, divorce and com-
munism, leading to anarchy."
Gibbons confined his own part in the main celebration
to felicitations upon the progress of the Catholic faith
during the century which had elapsed since the corner-
stone of the Cathedral had been laid. The Pope had con-
veyed his share of these felicitations in a letter ^ sent for
the occasion, which read :
"To OUR Beloved Son, James Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore^ Cardinal Priest of the Title
of St. Mary, across the Tiber:
"Beloved son, health and Apostolic benediction.
"When the first Archbishop of Baltimore, one hundred
years ago, laid the corner-stone of the Cathedral, he laid,
we may truly say, the foundation upon which the Church
of America was to rise to its full and glorious height.
For, whether we consider the ever increasing number of
priests ordained within its walls, the Bishops there conse-
crated, the national councils there celebrated or the vari-
ous magnificent solemnities or ecclesiastical functions
which it has witnessed, all have happily found, as it were,
their home in the Cathedral of Baltimore.
"Happily, we say, and ever with the promise of better
things, as is proven by the extension of the Hierarchy ; by
the growth of the Catholic population; by the peaceful
* Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 681
state of religion, your steadfast union with the See of
Rome and by the manifold consolations which our heart
has gathered from your achievements. Hence, we deem
it worthy of our highest approval that you propose to
commemorate with general rejoicing so signal an event.
We need not tell you with what sentiments of good will
and of heartfelt interest we share in this celebration.
You are all aware that we have always most ardently
adopted and are now equally eager to adopt whatsoever
may avail to enhance the honor of our religion among the
American people.
"Our eagerness herein is the greater because we are sure
that you will respond, with common accord and endeavor,
to the invitations which we, prompted by the memory of
what you have accomplished for religion, extend to you
on this timely and joyous occasion in urging the American
people to still greater efforts in behalf of our Catholic
faith. This exhortation we repeat in all earnestness,
knowing full well that our words must aim not only at
advancing the cause of religion, but also at furthering the
public weal. Intent, therefore, as you now are, upon ex-
tolling the sacred memories of your forefathers, and set-
ting forth the glories of your faith, we offer you our sin-
cere congratulations and bestow upon you the praise that
you fully deserve, both by your zeal in organizing this
public celebration and by the habitual attitude of mind
therein displayed. You manifest, indeed, a temper that
we ardently desire to see cultivated by all Catholics — a
temper, namely, which holds within itself, strong and full
of promise, the hope of the future.
"Right joyously, then, we express our wishes for the
prosperity of your churches and the success of this cen-
tenary observance. At the same time, as a pledge of
heavenly graces and a token of our deep affection, we
impart most lovingly our Apostolic benediction to you,
682 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Bishops, the clergy and the whole American
people.
"Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the second day of
March, 1906, in the third year of our pontificate.
"Pius P. P. X."
Although the Cardinal had sought to efface himself
from the festivities, he was not able to do so altogether.
At a dinner which was given at St. Mary's Seminary in
honor of the visiting prelates, the Papal Delegate con-
veyed to him the warmest congratulations upon his silver
jubilee, expressing the hope that he might long be spared
to continue his work for humanity.
On the evening of the next day there was a reception
to the Hierarchy by Cardinal Gibbons and the clergy of
the archdiocese at a large public hall. Governor War-
field, of Maryland, and Mayor Timamus, of Baltimore,
friends and supporters of Gibbons, lent their presence to
the event. Bishop Donahue, of Wheeling, who had spent
years as a priest in Gibbons' household, spoke from inti-
mate and discriminating knowledge when in an address
at the meeting he said of the Cardinal :
"His life and achievements have shed undying luster
on the Church for all time. He is a Prince of the Church;
he is also one of the plainest and most democratic citi-
zens of the land. His mind can rise to and grasp mo-
mentous questions of Church and State, yet with children
he can be a child in playfulness and glee. With the wise,
he is wise; with the simple, simple; simple in his tastes
and habits of life, simple in demeanor, and a friend to
the poor and helpless. I doubt if ever churchman trod
the soil of America who has endeared himself to more
hearts."
CHECKING THE TIDE OF SOCIALISM 683
None knew better than that large gathering of Bishops
that Gibbons was wise with the wise and simple with the
simple. He had been to them leader and friend for
more than twenty-five years. The thoughts that rose in
their minds upon the centenary of the Cathedral, the
seat of the mother See, the St. Peter's of the United
States, were mingled with thoughts of the leader
without fear and without reproach who had given to the
Church a new aspect in the eyes of the American people,
who towered now among the great figures of the world,
statesman and churchman, exemplar of the religious vir-
tues and of the civic virtues, who had led the Church in
America out of the wilderness of distrust and even open
hostility in which she had wandered for so many years
and brought her at last into the promised land where she
stood revealed before all the people in her own light, the
light in which Gibbons had exhibited her when so many
others had failed to do so. Acknowledging what he had
done, they loved him even more for what he was ; and on
best no barrier interposed to prevent them from hailing
best no barrier interposed to prevent them from hailing
him with one voice as the preeminent and revered citizen.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
SYMPATHY WITH FRENCH CATHOLICS
The passage of the French Law of Associations, and
subsequent agitation and legislation which ended in the
rupture of the Concordat, excited deep feelings on the
part of Catholics in the United States. They could not,
as churchmen, forget the ardent and fruitful help of
France any more than as citizens they could forget La-
fayette and Rochambeau. In the early days of European
civilization on the American continent, Jesuits from the
banks of the Seine and the Loire had carried the Cross up
and down the new world ; and when the Cross, no longer
a wanderer, pointed to Heaven from the tops of thou-
sands of churches, Cheverus and Flaget and Dubois and
Dubourg and many other Bishops and clergy from France
had helped to lay the foundations of religion in the youth-
ful nation. Now the Church of France was in tears ; and
Americans who pondered on the bitter trials through
which she was passing could not avoid contrasting them
with the peaceful relations between religion and the
State in their own country, and deploring that contrast.
So strongly were the American Bishops moved that, at
their meeting held in the spring of 1906 at the Catholic
University, a short time before the celebration of the
Baltimore Cathedral centenary, they had decided to ad-
dress a letter to the French Catholics, and requested Car-
684
SYMPATHY WITH FRENCH CATHOLICS 685
dinal Gibbons, their presiding officer, to prepare it. He
drew it up while the greater assemblage of prelates was
in Baltimore, and sent it to Cardinal Richard, Arch-
bishop of Paris, as the principal representative of the
Church in France. He wrote :
"We would profit by the presence of so many distin-
guished prelates to offer to our brethren in France, not so
happily circumstanced as we, an unequivocal testimony
of our sympathy and our sincere wishes for the welfare
of the Church of France. . . . We are compelled to as-
sure you of the keen regret which we feel at sight of the
bitter persecution to which the Church of France is sub-
jected— a persecution which, particularly during the last
quarter of a century, has been marked by exceptional and
vexatious legislation. To crown these irritating enact-
ments, the agreement which for a century bound the eld-
est daughter of the Church to Rome, has been, contrary
to all the requirements of justice and honor, ruthlessly
dissolved. The bloody conflicts immediately consequent
upon the first application of this notorious law sanction-
ing the separation of Church and state, so recently and
peremptorily condemned by Pius X, do but forecast dis-
turbances of a more serious character. However, such
misfortunes are bound to enlist in your behalf the sym-
pathy and prayers of all true children of the Church. . . .
"It is difficult for minds accustomed to the complete
liberty which we enjoy in this country to understand how
a civilized government can, in the name of liberty, sub-
ject an entire Christian people to the yoke of official
atheism. Here, on the contrary, our rulers recognize that
religion is necessary for the prosperity of the nation.
While they arrogate to themselves no authority in re-
ligious matters, thanks to the kindly feeling which ani-
mates them, vexed questions are amicably settled. To
illustrate by a single example, far from enacting legis-
686 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
lation hostile to the Church, disputes involving ecclesias-
tical property are decided by the civil courts in conform-
ity with her recognized laws.
"If the Church has the right of protection because she
is the truth, her progress requires only liberty worthy of
the name. This we have fully and completely. We sin-
cerely hope the Church of France may soon enjoy the
same advantage." ^
Cardinal Richard expressed his profound gratitude in
a reply lamenting the ordeal through which the Church
was then passing in France, and expressing his reliance
upon God for a happy issue from her afflictions.
The elements in control of the French government at
that time were bent upon the execution of their program
by their own methods, and the wishes of American Cath-
olics were of no more avail than the wishes of those in
Europe. Gibbons, in a public statement,^ called attention
forcibly to some of the excesses which were being com-
mitted. He was particularly disturbed because, as he
declared, hatred of religion rather than love of the repub-
lic actuated the French anti-clerical leaders. He said :
"In France the Jacobin party is not dead. Its spirit
is as living today as it was in the last decade of the
eighteenth century. Its adherents hate God; they hate
Christ; they hate His religion as much as their fathers
hated them."
He quoted one of the French cabinet ministers as hav-
ing said in an address to teachers :
"The time has come to root up from the minds of
French children the ancient faith, which has served its
* Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.
'Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1906.
SYMPATHY WITH FRENCH CATHOLICS 687
purpose, and replace it with the light of free thought. It
is time to get rid of the Christian idea. We have hunted
Jesus Christ out of the army, the navy, the schools, the
hospitals, the asylums for the insane and orphans, and
the law courts, and now we must hunt Him out of the
State altogether."
"What," asked the Cardinal, "would we Americans
say if a Cabinet ofBcer were to propose this as the great
aim of his administration*?"
Gibbons was at that particular juncture a close ob-
server of the manner in which the property rights of the
Catholic Church were being readjusted in the Philippines
and the other islands recently separated from the rule of
Spain. He pointed out in his statement the contrast
between the attitude of the French government at that
time toward ecclesiastical rights and that of the courts
of the United States, in which the legal claims of the
Church were fully respected, and a settlement was being
effected to the satisfaction of all.
The vigorous declaration of Gibbons soon became cir-
culated in France, where Premier Clemenceau felt its
influence to such an extent that he took occasion to deny
that a member of the cabinet had delivered the statement
attributed to him "as minister," although failing to deny
that the statement had been made. Gibbons promptly
cited the London Saturday Review ^ as his authority, and
saw no occasion to modify anything which he had said.
His declarations were the signal for many public pro-
tests in this country against the violent methods by which
the French government of that period carried out its plans
for the separation of Church and State.
* Review, August i8 and 25, 1906.
CHAPTER XXXIX
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE
No American of his time received so many spontaneous
tributes of public honor as Gibbons; and it remained for
him at the age of seventy-seven years to receive one of
these which had no precedent. It was on the occasion
of his silver jubilee as Cardinal, and his golden jubilee
as priest. He had reached the time of life when he had
long since been inclined to deprecate the paying of per-
sonal honors to himself, and, indeed, he had interposed
an absolute veto upon several proposals of that kind;
but when he learned what was contemplated by those
who prepared to mark the greatest of all his jubilees in
1911 his objections were silenced, for, keen student of
the history of his country that he was, he knew that no
American churchman, perhaps no American even in pub-
lic life, had ever been made the object of such a testimo-
nial as was to be given to him.
It was decided to divide the honors into two parts,
for did not Gibbons have a dual character now in the
eyes of his fellow-countrymen? Was he not, by the ac-
knowledgment of all, the foremost churchman who stood
among them, and was he not also the foremost citizen
outside of those holding the highest executive office? He
had exhibited in his own person, as no other man had
done, the fact that the two roles supplemented each other
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 689
and blended harmoniously in one. Now that his career
had covered a period which spread out in a long perspec-
tive and was beginning to show at last the real propor-
tions of the man, it was felt that while his jubilee was
ecclesiastical, his work had been both ecclesiastical and
civic.
The record of those years so far as their fruits related
solely to the Church was wonderful enough, and the cele-
bration would have recalled a great story of battle and
victory if it had been confined to that aspect of Gibbons
alone ; but the story of the half century was one that went
far outside even the broad reach of the Catholic Church.
It was of struggles, sacrifices and great and lasting bene-
fits for men everywhere and especially for men in the
country for whose welfare Gibbons had been second to
none in solicitude and effective help.
So it was determined by common and even impulsive
assent, as it were, that there should be two celebrations,
one in honor of Gibbons the churchman, one in honor of
Gibbons the citizen. Men of importance throughout the
country whose preoccupations in other directions might
have been expected to preclude them from taking any
particular notice of the plans suddenly developed a vivid
interest in them and a desire to share in what was to be
done. The thought, the feeling, the desire swept through-
out the country. Magazines and newspapers began to
spread before their readers at length accounts of what
those years of Gibbons had meant to the world. Com-
mittees were formed ; a bustle of preparations, after the
American fashion on such occasions, was begun.
The civic celebration was held first. Its scene was the
690 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
greatest public hall in Baltimore,^ one of those built for
national political conventions and other events of high
importance. In that great auditorium 20,000 persons
assembled on June 6, 1911, and thousands more waited
outside, inspired by the same desire to show homage to the
Cardinal such as had been shown to no American church-
man before.
It was not the size of the multitude which was the
gauge of the real meaning of the demonstration. Mr.
Taft, President of the United States, escorted Gibbons —
a pale, red-robed figure — into the hall for the honors that
were to be heaped upon him. Surrounding them as they
sat upon the platform were the Vice-President, Mr.
Sherman; the only living ex-President, Mr. Roosevelt;
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. White ; the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Clark ; the
ex-Speaker, Mr. Cannon; the British Ambassador, Mr.
Bryce; the Governor of Maryland, Mr. Crothers; the
Mayor of Baltimore, Mr. Preston; the United States
Senators from Maryland, Messrs. Rayner and Smith; the
members of the House of Representatives from the Car-
dinal's State, and a large number of the most prominent
figures in both houses of Congress, as well as leading men
of the State and city, without regard to religious belief.
Never had such an assemblage met for a purpose of that
kind; never had such a one met on any occasion, except
at the inauguration of a President of the United States,
where official duty rather than individual free will im-
pelled attendance.
No one could scan the representation of the nation's
*The Fifth Regiment Armory.
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 691
leaders, bound by a common desire to express the nation's
thanks to the object of such great attentions, without be-
lieving that Gibbons was "first in the hearts of his fel-
low-countrymen." His place was apart from the politi-
cal broils of that moment or any other; both political
parties and all elements of those parties were represented
in the official group that was present. No thoughts of
temporary circumstance were in the minds of those men
in honoring one who stood for the great permanent virtues
which all Americans admire and which they like to be-
lieve are characteristic of the best that is in them.
The evidence was overwhelming that Gibbons had be-
come a type for the whole people. That he was a Catho-
lic did not matter now; even that he was a Cardinal mat-
tered not; for he was the greatest single force that had
broken down the barrier of religious intolerance in
America, and it seemed overthrown forever as an effec-
tive force. The Civil War had brought political union
and Gibbons had brought religious fraternity. He was
the Lincoln of a new brotherhood.
As the time of the jubilee drew near, this unique trib-
ute had been suggested, and its details worked out in
large part by Oliver P. Baldwin, managing editor of the
Baltimore Sun^ a newspaper whose columns had reflected
during that pregnant half century the labors and aspira-
tions of the Cardinal's life. The preparations were made
by committees headed by Governor Crothers, a Methodist,
and Mayor Preston, the superintendent of an Episcopal
Sunday school. The committees included a number of
Catholics, but a majority of their membership was com-
posed of non-Catholics. Bishop Murray, of the Episco-
692 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pal diocese of Maryland, was one of the most active in
the work of organization. The whole aspect of the tribute
was non-sectarian from beginning to end. For the most
part the higher officials who assembled to speak for the
whole country in recognizing the eminent services of Gib-
bons were also non-Catholics.
Governor Crothers, as was fitting in the Cardinal's
State, presided and spoke of the celebration as truly rep-
resentative of Maryland, in which religious freedom had
been set up for the first time in the Western World. He
continued :
"It is a gathering embracing all religious denomina-
tions, without distinction or exception, assembled to do
honor to a great standard-bearer of religion, who repre-
sents the highest purposes of Church, State and society.
While we have assembled to honor, as with one heart, a
distinguished ecclesiastic, an incomparable citizen and a
great and good man, the occasion is, in my mind, still
more significant as a spontaneous union of men and
women, holding every religious and political opinion, to
tender the token of their esteem and affection to the head,
in America, of a great Church, which has now endured
almost two thousand years, and whose influence is as wide
as civilization itself.
"We salute you, Cardinal Gibbons, as a torch-bearer
in our midst of religion, justice and patriotism. We ac-
knowledge and celebrate before the country and the world
your lofty devotion to religious faith and purposes, your
unfailing and ceaseless activities in behalf of this State
and Union and of all their spiritual and material inter-
ests, your encouragement and help in all good aspirations,
your wise and beneficent counsels in times of difficulty
*Full reports of these .addresses were published in a memorial volume
of the celebration (Baltimore, 191 1.)
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 693
and doubt, your elevating influence upon all the move-
ments and concerns of this your own native land. The
State of Maryland tenders you its warmest and deepest
felicitations and most earnestly wishes you many more
years of life and happiness."
No one there knew more of what the Cardinal had done
for his country than President Taft. As civil governor
of the Philippines and afterwards as Secretary of War
having jurisdiction over those islands, he had been an
observer at close range of the immense practical service
which Gibbons had performed in readjusting their popu-
lation to the new conditions. He had leaned upon the
Cardinal's guidance and help in trying moments when the
outlook for so radical a transformation in the distant
archipelago had seemed dark indeed. Now, with every
problem solved, peace restored in the insular possessions,
and prosperity beginning to blossom upon fields scarred
recently by war, he spoke from a full heart when he said
of Gibbons :
"We are here to recognize and honor in him his high
virtues as a patriotic member of our political community
and one who through his long and useful life has spared
no efforts in the cause of good citizenship and the uplift-
ing of his fellow-men.
"As American citizens we are proud that his promi-
nence in the Church brought him twenty-five years ago
the rank of Cardinal. The rarity with which this rank is
conferred in his Church upon Bishops and priests so far
from Rome is an indication of the position which he had
won among his fellow-churchmen. But what we are es-
pecially delighted to see confirmed in him and his life is
the entire consistency which he has demonstrated between
694s LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
earnest and single-minded patriotism and love of country
on the one hand and sincere devotion to his Church on the
other.
"One of the tenets of his Church is respect for consti-
tuted authority, and always have we found him on the
side of law and order, always in favor of peace and good
will to all men, always in favor of religious tolerance,
and always strong in the conviction that complete free-
dom in the matter of religion is the best condition under
which churches may thrive. With pardonable pride he
points to the fact that Maryland under Catholic control
was among the first to give complete religious toleration.
"Nothing could more clearly show the character of the
man whose jubilee we celebrate than the living testi-
monial that this assembly is to his value as a neighbor
in the community of Baltimore.
"In spite of the burden and responsibilities of his high
position in the Church, he has taken part in many
great movements for the betterment of mankind and has
shown himself not only a good Catholic in the Church
sense, but he has been broadly catholic in the secular
sense of that word, so that the affection felt for him by
his co-religionists has spread to all denominations and to
all the people, who are quick to perceive a disinterested
friend.
"That he may long contmue active in his present high
position, that he may long continue in secular movements
to take the prominent place he has always had in works
of usefulness is the fervent prayer of Catholic and Prot-
estant, of Jew and Christian."
Roosevelt, like Taft, had had recourse to the Cardinal's
support and advice in times of stress and had come to
realize his real measure as a benevolent power in the
nation. No one of those who sat with the ex-President
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 695
and who heard him declare in his speech "I am honored —
we are all honored — that the opportunity has come to-
day to pay a tribute to what is highest and best in Ameri-
can citizenship, when we meet to celebrate this occasion"
could doubt that he was speaking the deliberate judg-
ment of years, for he had gratefully expressed the same
views before. He said:
"Not only is this gathering characteristic of Maryland,
but it is characteristic of our great Union, it is characteris-
tic of America, because here in this republic, with all of
our faults and shortcomings — and we have plenty of
them — it is nevertheless true that we have come nearer
than any other nation to solving the difficult problem of
combining complete religious liberty and toleration with
a devoutly religious feeling in the people as a whole.
"And we meet this afternoon to do honor in the name
of all the American people, in the name of the American
nation, to you, because while the American people may
differ among themselves on questions of dogma, they are
a unit in recognizing what counts in civic affairs for so
much more than dogma — conduct, in the churchman as
in the statesman.
"Friends, we read now and then prophecies of woe
about the churches in the future, complaints as to congre-
gations growing smaller, complaints as to lack of belief
among the congregations. There will be no trouble about
the future of any American church if that church makes
as its cardinal principle the rendering of service to the
people.
"No church in the United States will ever have to de-
fend itself as long as those standing highest in that
church, as well as those under them, serve the people,
devote their lives to the service of the men and women
round about them, as you, Cardinal Gibbons, have de-
696 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
voted your life to the service of your fellow-countrymen
and countrywomen. What we care for, what we Ameri-
cans wish to see in the church, is service; what we wish
to judge the man by is his conduct and character.
"If the church renders good service and if the man rings
true when we apply the touchstone of principle to his
conduct and his character, then the American people will
be well content with both church and man. And, my
fellow-countrymen, in spite of all the little things that
divide us, think how blessed we are because we are united
on an occasion like this without regard to past history and
antecedents, without regard to differences of religious or
political belief, to honor a good man, who in and through
his church and as a citizen of this country has lived the
life that a good man should live.
"It was my good fortune the other day to attend a
meeting composed chiefly of Protestant preachers, where
I was introduced by a Catholic priest and where we were
led in prayer by a Jewish rabbi, and now we come to-
gether, Catholic and Protestant, as the President has said,
to render honor to a man who is our fellow-citizen and
in whom we all claim a certain proprietary right. And,
friends, religious intolerance and bitterness are bad
enough in any country, but they are inexcusable in ours.
"Our republic, mighty in its youth, destined to endure
for ages, will see many Presidents during those ages, and
it will see Presidents who are Catholics as well as Presi-
dents who are Protestants; Presidents who are Jews as
well as Presidents who are Gentiles.
"The Cardinal throughout his life has devoted himself
to the service of the American people. He has endeav-
ored to work and he has worked steadily in the uplifting
of the lowly; he has worked steadily to bring nearer the
day when we should approximate better to the rule of
justice and fair dealing as between man and man. His
voice has ever been raised on behalf of the weak and the
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 69T
downtrodden, his hand ever stretched out toward those
who may have slept, toward all those who are in suffer-
ing, who have suffered loss or were suffering pain. He
has fought for the rights of the lowly, he has done all that
he might to bring nearer the day when there should be
a more complete reign of justice in this land, and he has
shown by his life his realization of the truth that justice
can come only through law and order ; that disorder and
lawlessness are the negation of justice and in the end
deal most severely against the poor and the lowly.
"He has set an example to all of us in public and pri-
vate life, both by that for which he has striven and the
way in which he has striven to achieve it. He has striven
for justice, he has striven for fair dealing and he has
striven for it in the spirit of truth, in the spirit that has
no relation to lawlessness or disorder, and at the same
time with the fullest recognition that law and order, es-
sential though they are, are primarily essential because
on them as a foundation, and only on them as a founda-
tion, is it possible to build the great temple of justice and
generous fair dealing as between man and man. I am
honored — we are all honored — that the opportunity has
come today to pay a tribute to what is highest and best
in American citizenship, when we meet to celebrate this
occasion, Cardinal Gibbons."
Following the addresses of the President and the ex-
President, speaking for the executive department of the
government, present and past, words which many of their
predecessors, had they been alive, would have been glad
to echo, congratulations were presented to the Cardinal
by Vice-President Sherman. Elihu Root, Senator from
New York, eulogized Gibbons in one of his brilliant
speeches as "the champion of ideals," saying:
698 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"It is because Cardinal Gibbons has illustrated in his
life, in his conduct, in his arduous labors, in his self-devo-
tion to all good causes, all that we would like to have our
children admire and follow, all that we love to believe
our country possesses, that America, through us, with sin-
cerity and ardor, honors him today. And it is because
he has been the champion of ideals, because he is a man
not only of works but of faith, that we who differ from
him in dogma, who do not belong to his Church, hold him
as in his proper person illustrating the true union of
service to State and service to God, the true union which
makes the functional and ceremonial union of Church
and State unnecessary, the union in the heart of man
of devotion to country and devotion to God.
"He is both a great prelate and a great citizen, and
under his guidance his Church, his people and his follow-
ers have always stood, and now stand, a bulwark against
atheism and anarchy, against the tearing down of those
principles of morality and of government upon which the
opportunities of our country depend."
Speaker Clark presented greetings from the House of
Representatives, saying :
"Cardinal Gibbons stands here today honored by the
entire American people, without respect to politics or
religion or geographical lines. Among the men that have
met here to do him honor, I live farther from this city
than any other man here except the Ambassador from
Great Britain; and the Cardinal's words are quoted as
often, his influence is as great, the affection for him is as
strong, west of the great river as it is in the city of Balti-
more."
There was also a voice, that of ex-Speaker Cannon,
raised in the name of those who were not identified with
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 699
any church, and who honored the Cardinal none the less
for simple manhood than for great accomplishments.
Mr. Cannon said :
"In the United States no man lives who has led in
doing more to bring men together under the influence of
a broad catholic spirit in religion, in politics, than your-
self. As a member of no church organization, one of the
outsiders, so far as church membership is concerned, I
tender to you my thanks for the great work that you
have led in doing and for the great work that is being
done, not only in the great republic, but in all the world,
by those who live under and teach under, with a broad
catholic spirit, the precepts of the Master."
Ambassador Bryce was one of those most amazed by
the extraordinary grouping of official persons to share
in honors in an English-speaking country to a Catholic
prelate. The author of "The Holy Roman Empire" and
"The American Commonwealth" could not fail to reflect
the historical background of his thoughts upon such an
occasion. In his own country he knew that such a gath-
ering was impossible. It was as if at a great public meet-
ing in London in honor of Manning, the Prime Minister
and the former Prime Ministers living, the Lord Chan-
cellor, the leaders in the House of Lords and the House
of Commons and the representation in both bodies from
the city of London as well as the municipal officials of
London had come together. Not only was such a gather-
ing impossible in honor of any of England's Cardinals,
Mr. Bryce knew, but it could not be drawn together to
honor a churchman of any faith in any European coun-
try. Of his deep knowledge of America, he also knew
700 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
that it would have been impossible in honor of any other
churchman whom this country had produced. Mr. Bryce
said in his speech :
"Is it not a beautiful sight when we think of the ages
of the past in which those of us who do not belong to the
Church which his Eminence represents, and those of us
who do belong to that Church, were divided by bitter
antagonisms and mutual suspicions'? Is it not a blessed
thing that today we can all meet without distinction of
religious faith to pay honor to one who illustrates the
fundamental principles of Christianity by his life as well
as by his teachings'?
"There are diversities of governments but the same
spirit, and in his Eminence and in his life there is drawn
out a beautiful example of those virtues which belong to
our common Christianity and which we can all honor
alike.
"And I may say to you, citizens of the United States,
that if there is anything which we in Europe specially
honor and admire in the great republic which belongs to
you, it is this — that you have carried out consistently
from the first that admirable principle with which you
started, of making no distinction of religion and by
teaching all men that their Christianity is a part of com-
mon citizenship. That is a great lesson which has been
taught to the world by America and I do not think it
could be taught in a more impressive form than it is
taught when all religious faiths may gather to honor an
illustrious prelate of the Catholic Church."
Mayor Preston spoke of the "exalted character and
useful life" of Gibbons, saying:
"In the name of our city and of this vast assemblage
of distinguished guests and home people I respectfully
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 701
felicitate him upon this recognition by his fellow-citizens
of his life and labors."
Notwithstanding the high station of the official group
around him, such had been the life of Gibbons that, in a
considerable degree, he was amid personal friends and
familiar associates. Perhaps this tended to lessen the
strain which any man might have felt when the time
came to respond to the eulogies of which he had been
the object. No one, however great his experience and
habit of poise on public occasions, could have failed to be
swept by thoughts of the meaning of such an event to
him. An extreme paleness of the countenance and a
slight wavering of the voice were the only outward evi-
dences which he gave of the tension that he must have
felt.
Besides, as he rose to speak and the great hall resound-
ed with acclamations which in ruder ages might have been
bestowed upon a military hero returning from the con-
quest of an empire, he beheld in the scene around him
justification of his life-long faith in the people among
whom his lot had been cast. He whose trust in the mis-
sion of the nation had been shown in the anguish of war,
the dark hours of labor riots, the scandals of polluted
politics and the flames of prejudice concerning religion
could not but feel the vindication of the great aims which
had inspired his career.
He spoke simply as he always did upon occasions per-
sonal in their nature, but he spoke thoughts that had
gripped him throughout the long years and never more
strongly than at that moment; testifying to his faith in
702 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
his country, to the essentially religious nature of the
American people, to his eminent satisfaction with the
results of the conditions under which Church and
State existed in America, to his unfailing confidence
in the perpetuity of the political institutions which
he had done so much to uphold. His address was
as follows:
"I am filled with emotions of gratitude by this extra-
ordinary manifestation on the part of my fellow-citizens,
without distinction of race or religion or condition of life,
and I am overwhelmed with confusion by the unmerited
encomiums which have been pronounced by the President
of the United States, the Vice-President, the former Pres-
ident, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the
former Speaker, Senator Root, the Ambassador of Great
Britain, the Governor of Maryland and the Mayor of
Baltimore.
"Gentlemen, you have portrayed your subject not, I
fear, as he is, but as he should be. But your portrait is
so attractive to me that it shall be my endeavor to re-
semble it more and more every day of the few years that
remain to me. One merit only can I truly claim regard-
ing my civic life, and that is, an ardent love for my native
country and her political institutions. Ever since I en-
tered the sacred ministry my aim has been to make those
over whom I exerted any influence not only more upright
Christians, but also more loyal citizens; for the most
faithful Christian makes the best citizen.
"I consider the Republic of the United States one of
the most precious heirlooms ever bestowed on mankind
down the ages, and that it is the duty and should be the
delight of every citizen to strengthen and perpetuate our
Government by the observance of its laws and by the
integrity of his private life. 'Righteousness,' says the
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 703
Book of Proverbs, 'exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach
to the people.'
"If our Government is destined to be enduring it must
rest on the eternal principles of justice, truth and right-
eousness, and these principles must have for their sanction
the recognition of a Supreme Being who created all things
by His power, who governs them by His wisdom and
whose superintending Providence watches over the affairs
of nations and of men.
"When the f ramers of our immortal Constitution were
in session, Benjamin Franklin complained to his col-
leagues of the small progress they had made after several
weeks of deliberation. He used these memorable words:
'We have spent many days in fruitless discussion. We
have been groping in the dark because we have not sought
light from the Father of Light to illumine our under-
standing. I have lived,' he continued, 'for many years,
and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I have
that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow
can not fall to the ground without His notice, is it prob-
able that an empire can rise without His aid and coopera-
tion*? We are told in the same sacred writings that
unless the Lord build the house, he laboreth in vain
who buildeth it.'
"Thank God, the words of Franklin did not fall on
barren soil. They have borne fruit. Our Government
from its dawn to the present time has been guided by
Christian ideals. It has recognized the existence of a
superintending Providence. This is evident from the
fact that our presidents, from George Washington to
William Howard Taft, have almost invariably invoked
the aid of our heavenly Father in their inaugural proc-
lamations. Both Houses of Congress are opened with
prayer. The Christian Sabbath is recognized and ob-
served throughout the land. The President of the United
States issues an annual proclamation, inviting his fellow-
704. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
citizens to assemble in their respective houses of worship
and thank the Almighty for the blessings vouchsafed to
us as a nation.
"It is true, indeed, that there is no official union of
Church and State in this country. But we must not infer
from this that there is any antagonism between the civil
and religious authorities. Far from it, Church and State
move on parallel lines. They mutually assist one an-
other. The State holds over the spiritual rulers the segis
of its protection without interfering with the sacred and
God-given rights of conscience. And the Church on her
part helps to enforce the civil laws by moral and religious
sanctions.
"I fear that we do not fully realize and are not duly
grateful for the anxious cares with which our Chief Mag-
istrate and the heads of the co-ordinate branches of the
Government are preoccupied in the discharge of their
official duties. And these cares are the price which is
paid for our domestic peace and comfort and the tran-
quillity of the commonwealth. When the traveler in
mid-ocean is buffeted by the waves he feels a sense of
security, because he knows that the captain and his offi-
cers are at the post of duty. So do we securely rest on
our pillows because we are conscious that our great cap-
tain and his associates in office are diligently steering the
ship of state.
"It is the duty of us all, churchman and layman, to
hold up the hands of our President, as Aaron and Hur
stayed up the hands of Moses. Let us remember that our
Chief Executive and all subordinate magistrates are the
accredited agents and ministers of God and are clothed
with Divine authority and therefore it is our duty and
should be our delight to aid them by every means in our
power in guiding and controlling the destiny of our glori-
ous republic."
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 705
Not only in the remotest parts of the United States,
but throughout the world, this gathering was a subject of
extended comment; and, after all, it seemed in the case
of Gibbons a matter of course. The extraordinary trib-
ute which he had received was merely a definite form of
expression of thoughts which had existed in the minds
of men for many years and which continued to exist in
them. Of the multitude of laudations in the press, some
of those keyed in the strongest note of expression were
from non-Catholic sources. So far as the personality of
Gibbons was concerned the dividing line had disappeared.
His mission was that of a man to men, and appreciation
of its bountiful fruits could not be circumscribed. He
had reversed the dictum that republics are ungrateful.
No one sat upon the platform on that memorable occa-
sion who was not astonished at the spectacle. No one
was more surprised at it than Gibbons. In spite of his
disinclination to accept public ceremonies in his honor, he
remarked after the last words had been said that the day
was one of the happiest of his life, and added :
*T have been present at many great ecclesiastical and
civic ceremonies where there were outpourings of clergy
and laymen, but never have I seen a more august body
of men together. Every branch of this great government
of ours was represented. There was the executive, rep-
resented by my esteemed friend President Taf t ; the leg-
islative, represented by many senators and representa-
tives; and the judicial, by Chief Justice White. No
greater body of men could have been assembled, and this
day and its event will live always in my memory.
"I cannot express my feelings when I consider the num-
706 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ber and character of the men who came here to pay their
respects. I want to thank each man, woman and child
who took the trouble to be present. For a humble citizen
like myself, I think it is the greatest demonstration ever
attempted."
In the quiet of his study, robed in the worn gray
dressing gown which was a familiar object to his inti-
mates who were accustomed to visit him there, he said, as
he contemplated the many messages by cable, telegraph
and mail which had poured in upon him :
"It seemed that the whole nation remembered me.'*
Not only was he remembered by the nation which he
loved, but by men of prominence abroad who shared in
the pleasure of the occasion. Six of the cable messages
which he received were from Cardinals in Europe.
In the great hall itself it had seemed almost to have
a savor of unreality that such an assemblage could be
brought together to pay honor to any man. Most of the
speeches, except of course that of the Cardinal himself,
who could not have trusted himself to attempt impromptu
expression on such an occasion, had the merit of being
extemporaneous and therefore seemed to come straight
from the hearts of those who uttered them. There was
no vein of extravagance in them, such as men talking for
a purpose apart from the object of the meeting might
have introduced. Scanned closely, they were found to
form an exceptionally accurate estimate of the object of
their praise. Distinguished as were the speakers, most
of them knew Gibbons well, in not a few cases intimately.
What they uttered was, collectively, the deliberate opin-
ion of nearly all those close enough to him to rate him
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 707
for what he was. They were estimates rather than eulo-
gies and did not go further than a multitude of expres-
sions in magazines and newspapers which appeared simul-
taneously, if as far.
While the majority of those who spoke were not of
the Cardinal's religious faith, they were one with him in
civic faith and in his view of a man's duty to men. His
own address, couched in terms of humility which no one
doubted, reinforced the general impression of himself.
He spoke thoughts, simple enough in themselves, the ex-
emplification of which in his long life had been the cause
of all that was said of him by the chiefs of the nation.
There was no accounting for the tribute, except on the
ground of his own personality. Mr. Baldwin, who con-
ceived the idea of the meeting, had been indefatigable
in obtaining acceptances to the invitations, but even his
best efforts would have been unequal to assembling such
a gathering had there not been a truly earnest desire on
the part of the leaders of official life to recognize such
services to the State as no churchman in America, except
Gibbons, had ever given. Some of those who took lead-
ing parts did so at considerable sacrifice. Chief Justice
White, who for many years had been a close friend of
Gibbons, came all the way from his home in New Or-
leans in order to be present, though his age was advanced.
None would have spoken more fervently than he of the
Cardinal, had it not been for the custom which prevents
the Chief Justice from delivering speeches on public occa-
sions outside the circle of his judicial duties.
Neither Taft nor Roosevelt would have been willing
to miss such a meeting, and, indeed, either of them would
708 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
have considered it a slight not to have been invited. They
were not of the type to conceal the gratitude which they
felt for the direct services to the nation which Gibbons
had given during their terms in the Presidential office.
Nothing could be found in the nature of the event,
apart from the personality of its chief participant, to
draw forth such an overwhelming expression of official
recognition. True, the silver jubilee of a Cardinal is rare.
Most of the members of the Sacred College are near
sixty years of age when they are appointed, especially
those far removed from Rome, for they must attain, as
a preliminary, records of exceptional accomplishment in
the Church, tried and proved by the test of time. They
would thus be beyond eighty years of age if they reached
the silver jubilee of the Cardinalate. For the same rea-
son, few Archbishops attain a service of twenty-five years
as such, but Gibbons in 1911 had been Archbishop of
Baltimore for a third of a century.
Considering that the event took place in America, the
silver jubilee of a Cardinal in this country was, of course,
a rarity, for there had been only one before Gibbons and
he had served only ten years in the Sacred College. Mc-
Closkey, "retiring from the world," as Gibbons said of
him in the sermon at his funeral, was only a name to the
great majority of Americans outside his diocese. A be-
loved ecclesiastic and an excellent administrator, he had
led no battle, won no triumph, suffered no reverse. Had
he survived to bear his eminent title to the length of
twenty-five years, there would have been an imposing
Church celebration of that event, but no one, least of all
McCloskey himself, would have thought of a national
CIVIC HONORS AT HIS JUBILEE 709
civic celebration as appropriate in that connection.
But Gibbons had set a new type for churchmen in
America, not only as to his own Church, but as to all
forms of all faiths. He had made a place for himself
that no other had filled or attempted to fill, for the reason
that it had seemed unattainable. No Catholic ecclesiastic
had been so bold as to believe before Gibbons' time that
he could be an acknowledged leader in the public life of
the nation without drawing upon himself fierce hostility ;
the conception of how the balance of the two elements
could be preserved with perfect propriety was possible to
few men. To risk the misunderstanding that there was
an attempted encroachment by the Church upon the State
would have seemed fraught with untold danger. More
particularly would this apply in the case of a Cardinal of
dominant personality.
Yet, so far as his most intimate friends were able to
detect. Gibbons had never thought of such a danger;
certainly he was not one to shrink from any undertaking
because of fear of being misunderstood. His natural
bent was to take a deep interest in citizenship, and he
could only have held aloof from participation in public
affairs by a violent effort of the will. Besides, he valued
his rights under the Constitution and laws as few men
valued them, and he wished to exercise them fully. He
did not claim any greater right than the humblest citizen,
but that to him seemed enough. He was constantly
deploring that so few men, comparatively, made proper
use of their opportunities to give civic service, and he
drew no line of creed as to this. Once he said that he
would much prefer active participation by an individual
710 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
in public affairs, even if the individual were inclined at
times to err in judgment, to the dulness of indifference.
His creed was action in civic life as well as in religion.
Searching for a precedent, it would appear that those
American churchmen who most nearly approached the
public role which Gibbons filled were Archbishops Car-
roll and Hughes in the Catholic Church, and Henry Ward
Beecher among Protestants. Carroll, the pathfinder,
showed the way with sure and steady step to the Catholics
of America when the Church numbered only about 25,000
souls in the whole country, owing to the disabilities im-
posed under English Colonial rule. The guidance of
that small body was a far different undertaking from
that of Gibbons. Carroll was second to none in the es-
teem in which he was held by the leaders of the young
nation, but he was not as constant a participant in public
affairs as Gibbons, and mingled less with public men. It
remained for Gibbons to give effectiveness, when the
United States was becoming the most populous of the
great powers of the world, to the great ideas which Car-
roll conceived with clear vision in the darkness of the
struggle that made the country independent.
Hughes ^ and Beecher ^ were eminently successful in
preventing the marshaling of European influence against
the preservation of the American union in the Civil War,
but neither of them had exemplified the deep and inti-
mate reach into the life of the country that Gibbons
had. The model which Gibbons set was original and
difficult even for others to imitate.
"Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, p. 473-
* Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher, pp. 161-186.
CHAPTER XL
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS
Nothing could have been more characteristic of Gib-
bons than an incident that developed when the time of
the ecclesiastical celebration of his jubilee in October,
1911, was drawing near. There had been no objection
when the City Council of Baltimore had declared a
municipal holiday in honor of the civic celebration in
June. A few weeks before the time set for the ecclesias-
tical commemoration, a resolution for declaring a muni-
cipal holiday for that occasion also was presented in the
Council. The resolution passed one branch of that body,
and was about to be passed by the other branch, when ob-
jections by the Ministerial Union of Baltimore, a group
of Protestant ministers who met for periodical discus-
sions, were interposed.
The union adopted resolutions of protest which, how-
ever, were careful to set forth that they had no relation
to a desire to withhold honor from Gibbons himself. The
resolutions read:
"A great municipal reception was given to Cardinal
Gibbons last June participated in by city officers and
ministers of many denominations and various State and
national representatives, making it a general tribute to a
great citizen, and expressing the kindly and courteous
feelings of Baltimore to him as a man;
711
712 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"An ecclesiastical celebration of the same anniversaries
is being planned for this October by his own church, a
distinctly ecclesiastical observance as the proposed pro-
gram indicates. On this occasion we Protestants can and
do present our respectful congratulations, but in this cele-
bration we cannot be expected to take part.
"It has been reported in the newspapers that the pro-
posal is now before the City Council to set aside a day
in this ecclesiastical program, namely, Monday, October
16, as a municipal holiday, closing all municipal offices
and the public schools, in which the great majority are
Protestants, in deference to this ecclesiastical celebration,
forcing them tacitly to have a part in it.
"Therefore, Resolved^ That without in the least les-
sening our honor and respect for Cardinal Gibbons as a
man and as a citizen and as a brother churchman of signal
ability and success in the duties of his high office, never-
theless we most earnestly and emphatically protest against
the overzeal and unwisdom of some of his friends in the
proposal to force a municipal holiday upon our city in
deference to an ecclesiastical celebration.
"We regard such proposed action as an infringement
upon our rights as Protestant citizens in this municipality.
"We regard such proposed action as a direct violation
of a fundamental principle of our American government,
with its complete separation of Church and State.
"We regard such proposed action as a most dangerous
and unwarranted precedent, and therefore against it we
must courteously but firmly record our emphatic protest."
At a meeting of the union, speeches were made in sup-
port of the resolutions in which, as in the resolutions
themselves, there was no word of disrespect to the Car-
dinal. Gibbons saw an account of this meeting in a
newspaper the following morning, and sent a hasty mes-
C
pa
O
'5 e
fin's •"
^ 2q
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 713
sage summoning to his residence for consultation a friend
with whom he was accustomed to confer at times upon
public questions. When this friend arrived at his place
of business that morning, he received the message, and,
without giving a thought to his own numerous duties of
the day, proceeded at once to the archiepiscopal residence.
He found the Cardinal in his study, attired in the
familiar dressing gown. After a brief exchange of greet-
ings, the Cardinal disclosed the object of his summons by
saying :
"I have just been reading in the Sun of the meeting
of ministers yesterday, at which objection was made to a
municipal holiday in honor of my ecclesiastical jubilee.
What do you think of their views'?"
The friend was not prepared to answer so direct a
question at once. He felt that no honor would be too
great for the Cardinal, and therefore was somewhat
shocked at the objections to the holiday. He replied:
"Your Eminence, I think it was at least in bad taste."
Gibbons replied at once:
"I think they are right."
He had evidently made up his mind firmly on the sub-
ject and merely wished to sound his friend, as he had
done on former occasions. The Cardinal continued :
"Do you know Mr. Jung, who introduced the resolu-
tion in the City Council^"
The friend said that he did not know the councilman.
"Do you know any one who has influence with him?"
was the next question.
In reply the Cardinal's visitor named one of the lead-
ing men of the city, identified with local politics, in a
714 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
better sort of way, who was credited with special influ-
ence in the ward which Jung represented. The Cardinal
proceeded :
"Go to see him at once for me, and ask him to request
Mr. Jung to call upon me at three o'clock."
The mission was promptly executed and at the hour
named the city councilman presented himself at the Car-
dinal's residence. Gibbons had prepared for the inter-
view. He thanked Jung for the kindly sentiments which
had caused him to introduce the resolution, and re-
quested earnestly that it be withdrawn at the meeting
of the Council which was to take place later on that day.
At the same time he handed to Jung a prepared statement
in which he formally requested the withdrawal. In this
statement the Cardinal gave three reasons for his course.
They were :
First, a municipal holiday might not be acceptable to
the parents of the thousands of children attending the
schools, who would be released from discipline and spend
the time in idleness.
Second, the business interests of the city might be in-
terfered with.
Third, many persons of the laboring classes would be
thrown out of employment and lose a day's wages.
From obvious causes he omitted to state the fundamen-
tal and all-compelling reason with him, which was that
he wished to do nothing at any time which would offend
the sensibilities of his Protestant fellow-citizens.
The Cardinal told Jung that he hoped that his action
would meet with the approval of all the people of Balti-
more, regardless of creed. He added that he could never
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 715
cease to express his gratitude to the city and State au-
thorities for participating officially in the civic celebra-
tion in his honor in June, and that it was, in his opinion,
neither necessary nor desirable that the City Council
should give special recognition to the next celebration,
which would be purely ecclesiastical.
Jung could do nothing but acquiesce in the Cardinal's
views, and the resolution was withdrawn from the Coun-
cil's consideration.
Gibbons went further. He sent for the minister who
had made the principal speech to the Ministerial Union
in opposition to the declaration of a municipal holiday
and cordially commended him for the stand that had
been taken, saying that the views of both of them upon
the subject coincided fully. The minister was much im-
pressed by the brotherly affection with which the Cardinal
received him, and still more by the frank and emphatic
views, paralleling his own, which the eminent prelate
expressed.
Gibbons arranged a prelude, as he sometimes did in
the case of important ecclesiastical celebrations, which
took the form of the delivery of a message to all his fel-
low-countrymen, in advance of the event, on a subject
which he considered important and necessary to present.
At that time there was strong public agitation in favor
of the constitutional amendment subsequently enacted,
providing for the election of United States senators by
popular vote, instead of by the legislatures of the States,
and also for the initiative, referendum and recall of pub-
lic officials. Gibbons had positive views upon these ques-
tions, because they involved a considerable change from
716 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
constitutional methods, in the upholding of which he saw
the principal reliance for the safety of American institu-
tions, and he felt that the occasion must not be allowed
to pass without a word of warning to his fellow-citizens.
Preaching in the Baltimore Cathedral October 13, a
week in advance of the celebration, he delivered his mes-
sage to one of the greatest congregations ever assembled
even in that edifice. As always when he preached there,
non-Catholics composed perhaps half of the congregation,
and long lines of people who were unable to find places
within the building massed in the streets outside as the
time for the service approached.
Gibbons began by referring to his coming jubilee,
saying :
"When the subject of commemorating the golden
jubilee of my ordination to the priesthood and the silver
jubilee of my elevation to the Sacred College was under
consideration, I expressed the desire and intention of
celebrating the event with the least possible display. But
you all know how my modest arrangements were dashed
aside by the kind partiality of my friends and fellow-
citizens of Baltimore and Maryland. Never, indeed,
shall I forget, never shall I cease to be grateful for the
unparalleled reception of June 6, which shall always be
a red-letter day in the annals of our city — when the
President and the leading members of the coordinate
branches of the Government assembled in Armory Hall,
with the Governor and Mayor, and City Council, and the
prominent citizens of the city and State, to pay your
Cardinal Archbishop an honor beyond his deserts.
"The pleasure of this demonstration was enhanced by
the consideration that it was so cordial and spontaneous
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 717
and was conceived and undertaken without the slightest
suggestion or expectation on my part.
"Besides that civic festivity, I shall be honored on the
15th of this month by a large concourse of my brethren
of the Episcopate and clergy from various parts of the
United States, Canada, Mexico and Africa, who will
join with me in the religious celebration of the jubilee.
"It is very natural that on an occasion like the present
I should indulge in some reminiscences. This is a privi-
lege of the old, in which the young cannot share.
"All the priests that were ordained for this diocese
with me, and before my time, have long since passed
away, and all my Episcopal brethren with whom I began
to labor after my consecration, forty-three years ago,
have gone to their reward, with one solitary exception,
and that exception is the venerable Bishop of Kansas City.
Though I value the friendship of my junior colleagues, I
feel a sense of loneliness in the absence of my old com-
panions with whom I sat so often in council and with
whom I labored so long in the vineyard of the Lord.
"It may be interesting as well as consoling to institute
a comparison between the Church of 1861 and its present
situation after half a century. In 1861 the Archbishops
and Bishops of the United States numbered 48. The
priests were 2,064. The number of churches with priests
attached was 2,042, and the Catholic population was es-
timated at 1,860,000.
"The number of Archbishops and Bishops today in
charge of Sees amounts to 96, twice as many as existed in
1861. The priests amount to 17,000, an increase of more
than eight-fold. There are 13,500 churches, nearly a
seven-fold increase. We have about 15,000,000 Church
members, eight times as many as existed in the United
States in 1861.
"But the progress of religion in our country is to be
718 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
estimated not only by the augmentation of the number
of communicants but also by a more efficient coordination
and discipline. The clergy, in 1861, were as detached
squadrons compared to the compact and well-marshaled
army of today.
"Half a century ago the prelates and clergy labored
under many adverse circumstances. In widely extended
parts of the country they had to minister to the faithful
scattered over a vast expanse of territory, without or-
ganized parishes, often without churches wherein to wor-
ship, and without Catholic schools. They had but scant
resources to sustain them. Frequently they had to con-
tend with deep-rooted prejudices.
"Now, thank God, we have in most places parishes
well organized. Churches have multiplied from the At-
lantic to the Pacific. Parochial schools have become the
rule instead of the exception in the large centres of popu-
lation. A generous laity are usually able and always
willing to aid our missionaries. An unfriendly feeling
still exists in some quarters, as a result of long standing
traditions and a biased education. But the mists of preju-
dice are gradually disappearing before the sunlight of
truth.
"Let me address you, my junior brethren of this Epis-
copate and the clergy. Oh I you who are now in the full
tide of physical and intellectual vigor, I congratulate you,
for your lives are fallen in pleasant places. What a rich
field is open to your apostolic zeal !
"You represent the highest authority in the world, the
Lord of Hosts Himself. You go forth as the envoys not
of an earthly potentate, but of the King of kings and Lord
of lords. And if it is a great distinction for any Ameri-
can citizen to represent his country before the courts of
Europe, how much greater is the honor you enjoy of rep-
resenting the court of Heaven before the nations of the
earth I 'For Christ,' says the Apostle, 'we are ambassa-
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 719
dors, God, as it were, exhorting by us.' How beautiful on
the mountain are the feet of Him that bringeth good tid-
ings and that preacheth peace, of Him that showeth forth
good ; that preacheth salvation ; that saith to Zion : 'My
God shall reign.'
"Your mission is to an enlightened American people
who are manly and generous, open to conviction and who
will give you a patient hearing. The American race
forms the highest type of a Christian nation when its
natural endowments of truth, justice and indomitable
energy are engrafted on the supernatural virtues of faith,
hope and charity."
Gibbons proceeded to advise the junior clergy as to
their conduct, exhorting them to shed luster upon the
cause of religion and that "as citizens of the United
States, you should take a prominent part in every measure
that conduces to the progress of the commonwealth."
Launching then into the general civic message which he
wished to deliver, he said:
"At the present moment there are three political prob-
lems which are engaging the serious attention of our pub-
lic men.
"It is proposed that United States Senators should be
elected by popular vote instead of being chosen by the
Legislatures, as is prescribed by the Constitution.
"It is proposed that the acts of our Legislatures before
they have the force of law, should be submitted to the
suffrage of the people, who would have the right of veto.
"It is proposed to recall or remove an unpopular judge
before the expiration of his term of office.
"No one questions the ability, the sincerity and patrio-
tism of the advocates of these changes in our organic laws.
But I hope I may not be presumptuous in saying that, in
720 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
my opinion, the wisdom of the proposed amendments
must be seriously questioned.
"The election of Senators by the votes of the people
involves the destruction of a strong bulwark against dan-
gerous popular encroachments. The reason given for this
contemplated change is that many of our State Legisla-
tures are charged with being venal, and that it is easier
to corrupt the Legislature than the whole people.
"In reply I would say : If you cannot trust the mem-
bers of the Legislature, how can you trust their constitu-
ents from whom they spring? If you cannot confide in
our Legislatures you cannot confide in human govern-
ment nor in human nature itself.
"If a few of our Legislatures have been found guilty of
bribery, it is most unjust to involve all the others in their
condemnation. I have sufficient confidence in the moral
integrity of our Legislatures to be convinced that the
great majority of them have never bent the knee to
mammon.
"To give to the masses the right of annulling the acts
of the Legislature is to substitute mob law for established
rule.
"To recall a judge because his decisions do not meet
with popular approval is an .insult to the dignity, the
independence and the self-respect of our judiciary. Far
less menacing to the Commonwealth is an occasional cor-
rupt or incompetent judge than one who would be the
habitual slave of a capricious multitude and have his ear
to the ground trying to ascertain the will of the populace.
"The Constitution of the United States is the palla-
dium of our liberties and a landmark in our march of
progress. That instrument has been framed by the anx-
ious cares and enlightened zeal of the fathers of the re-
public. Its wisdom has been tested and successfully
proved after a trial of a century and a quarter.
"It has weathered the storms of the century which is
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 721
passed and it should be trusted for the centuries to come.
What has been good enough for our fathers ought to be
good enough for us. Every change, either in the political
or religious world, is not a reformation. 'Better to bear
the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.'
"Every man that runs about waving a new panacea for
social evils is not to be worshiped as a political and moral
reformer. We all remember the story of 'Aladdin or the
wonderful lamp.' Better to trust to the old lamp of the
fathers which has guided the steps of the American people
for generations than to confide in every ignis fatuus that
may lead us into dangerous pitfalls. Do not disturb the
political landmarks of our republic."
Public interest in Gibbons was keyed up by the ap-
proach of the ecclesiastical celebration, and his words
were telegraphed throughout the country. While they
were not sufficient to stay the movement for the consti-
tutional change as to the election of Senators, they added
a weighty influence to other forces which were being ex-
erted against the adoption of the initiative, referendum
and recall and which prevented those innovations from
obtaining more than a scant foothold in a few of the
States.
A week later the devoted co-worker of Gibbons, Arch-
bishop Ireland, in an address at a banquet of the Society
of the Army of the Tennessee in Council Bluffs, Iowa,
echoed his views and this second deliverance served fur-
ther to concentrate attention upon the subject. With a
burst of that fire which had thrilled many great gather-
ings, Ireland exclaimed:
"Democracy, yes; mobocracy, never! And toward
mobocracy we are now bidden to wend our way. The
722 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
shibboleths of the clamor — the initiative, referendum,
recall — put into general practice, as the evangelists of the
new social gospel would fain have them, are nothing more
nor less than the madness of Democracy. The highest
and purest moral virtues run into extremes — become evil
— so with Democracy.
"May we not, it is asked, trust the people"? Yes, we
trust the people as the framers of our Constitution trusted
them, as the people usually trust themselves when inter-
ests other than political are at stake, remitting those in-
terests to experts. We trust the people when they treat
of matters with which they are conversant.
"In the long run American public opinion will be sure
to right itself; the misfortune is, as we know too well,
the people may suffer from a temporary excitement.
From the consequences of such excitement we should
strive to save the republic."
A few days before the celebration in Baltimore began
a silver service of 264 pieces, one of the handsomest and
most costly gifts of the kind which could be presented
to any one, was bestowed upon Gibbons in the City
Hall as an additional mark of the esteem in which he was
held at home. It had been purchased by means of volun-
tary public subscriptions. The ceremony of presentation
took place on Saturday, October 7, and was presided over
by Mayor Preston. Gibbons was no stranger to the large
reception room in which it took place, for he had been
welcomed there by not a few of Mayor Preston's prede-
cessors. This time he found himself in the midst of a
gathering including the members of the City Council and
the heads of the municipal departments and boards.
Governor Crothers also joined the company.
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 723
The mayor, in an address, hailed the Cardinal in his
dual capacity which all recognized, saying :
"On June 6, of the present year, in the Fifth Regiment
Armory of our city, your Eminence was the center of one
of the most remarkable gatherings that has ever assem-
bled in this or any other city. The occasion was the
fiftieth anniversary of your elevation to the priesthood
and the twenty-fifth armiversary of your elevation to the
Cardinalate in the great Church of which you have been
and are such a distinguished member.
"Renowned as you are as priest and prince of the great
Roman Catholic Church for your many years of zealous,
faithful and notable services in the cause of religion, you
are no less distinguished as a man and a citizen of this
great republic for your life of service to mankind and to
the cause of order, morality and good government.
"The testimonial which the committee has selected is
the silver service which is before you, and which, as chair-
man of that committee, it is my duty to present to you on
its behalf and on behalf of the much greater body of your
friends who bear a part in this testimonial. Together
with that, I am also commissioned to present to you a
bound volume recording the demonstration of June 6,
the public meeting and the notable speeches that were
there delivered and other events connected with the cele-
bration of your golden jubilee as a priest and the twenty-
fifth anniversary of your service as a Cardinal."
The mayor's statement that the civic celebration in
June had been marked by the attendance of "one of the
most remarkable gatherings that has ever assembled in
this or in any other city" was amplified by Governor
Crothers, who said that it had no precedent anywhere.
The Cardinal, in the presence of this new proof of the
724 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
affection of his friends and neighbors, expressed thanks
to the mayor, the members of the City Council, and the
others who were present; and, in addition, he named a
number of the chairmen of the committees who had been
foremost in arranging the festivities of the year in his
honor. The first of those whom he mentioned was John
Gardner Murray, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of
Maryland, of whom he said : "I hope it will not be in-
vidious to mention in a particular manner the Rt. Rev.
Bishop Murray, chairman of the committee on recep-
tion." The Cardinal promised that the silver service
would be "preserved in the archiepiscopal household for
generations to come," adding:
"It will serve as a souvenir to those who come after us
of the close ties of friendship that bound together myself,
my fellow-citizens and friends of Baltimore and Mary-
land, and it will be an incentive to my successors to cul-
tivate the same happy fraternal relations."
A celebration in honor of Gibbons without some form
of participation by the Catholic University would have
seemed to him like a celebration in honor of a part of him-
self, but not the whole. This time the participation took
a singularly happy turn. The trustees of the university
decided to erect a new hall of handsome proportions, one
of the massive group that had sprung up on the ample
acres of the university seat, as it seemed, out of mists of
doubt and difficulty and struggle, and called it Cardinal
Gibbons Memorial Hall. They asked the Cardinal to
lay the cornerstone at his jubilee.
Nothing could have made a stronger appeal to him
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 725
than this. He joined in the plan with a zest which the
enthusiasm of youth could not have exceeded, and every
step that was taken to prepare for the erection of the
hall was a new joy to him. It was, of course, no easy
task to raise the $250,000 needed for this new project
for an institution whose rapid growth had made the draw-
ing upon every source of prospective revenue an incessant
and never satisfied need; but subscriptions began to flow
in when the plan became known, and the financing of the
building became easier.
Gibbons laid the cornerstone on Friday, October 12,
in the presence of many prelates, and an assemblage of
Catholic scholarship seldom equaled in America. Arch-
bishop Farley, the vice-president of the trustees, deliv-
ered the principal address and spoke of Gibbons as the
"honor and glory of the Church in America," the "most
beloved man" in that Church. He said that the hour and
the man for the accomplishment of the long-cherished
university project had been found at the Third Plenary
Council of Baltimore, whence Gibbons, the presiding offi-
cer and dominating figure of that conclave, had gone
forth commissioned by the prelates to take up the work,
relying upon faith in things unseen, rather than upon any
practical prospect of making a start at that time. Arch-
bishop Farley reviewed the steps that had been taken in
organizing the university and continued:
"While the responsibility in general for the working
of the institution rests on the board of trustees, the cen-
tral pivot in which every movement of the great and
growing mechanism of the institution turned was the
chairman of the board, the chancellor of the university.
726 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
In times of stress all learned to turn to him ; to him every-
one looked for inspiration in each new departure in the
career of the institution, and in every change and circum-
stance he was found equal to the demand.
"But while Cardinal Gibbons thus rendered invaluable
service from the beginning in every juncture, never in its
history was his indomitable courage, the most needed ele-
ment in the rise of every vast undertaking, so notably
shown as in the dark days of its greatest trial. For trials
it has had in common with all great things begun for God
and the good of religion. For then even those who loved
the university with the love of a strong man's soul lost
heart and hope, felt in all sincerity that the work had
been premature and that this trial was the extremest test
under which it must go down, to await other times and
other men in generations to come. And these did not even
hesitate to advise that the enterprise be abandoned.
"Then it was that he whom we delight to honor by
these walls proved the bulwark of the people. 'Never,*
said he, 'while I have power to wield a pen in appeal or
lift a voice in pleading, shall this work of religion stop.
God wills it; the work must go on.'
"And he triumphed, aye, almost alone. Yes, in that
fruitful time he might be said to have trod the winepress
alone. And today is laid upon his venerable brow the
crown which is the fruit of this 'courage of the cross.'
"If today the Catholic University stands forth before
the world a thing of beauty and of fairest promise, fairer
and more prosperous than at any time in her history, no
longer a source of painful anxiety, not only for its future
but for its very existence, it is, under God, wholly due
to the indomitable labor of his Eminence Cardinal
Gibbons.
"It is said. Tut not your trust in princes.' In this our
Prince of the Church we have trusted, and we have not
been confounded. His princedom is not of this world.
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 727
He worked and prayed and hoped in the Lord and has
not been disappointed.
"These things, too, he has done for the university not
only while he was laboring in his own diocese, but while
his influence was being cast in favor of every good and
patriotic cause throughout the length and breadth of the
land. And with it all he seems to grow, like the eagle.
The winter of discontent seems never to have dawned for
him, but rather does he seem to enjoy a perpetual Indian
summer. May it be long so."
In the brilliancy of that autumn day Gibbons' mind
wandered back to the physical gloom that had enshrouded
the gathering which had assembled at the laying of the
first cornerstone of the university. Speaking a few words
of hopefulness before pronouncing the benediction, he
said:
"I cannot fail to contrast that other day of more than
twenty years ago, when the first cornerstone of this uni-
versity was laid, with the bright sunshine that now con-
fronts us. Rain fell in torrents that day. Now the skies
are cloudless and we are deluged with sunshine. It sug-
gests to me the words of Holy Scripture which tell us
that they who sow in tears shall reap in joy."
The Cardinal congratulated the university on its suc-
cess and prosperity and said :
'T earnestly hope that before the winter's snows fall
the central tower of the building will be completed and
we will wait upon Providence to enable us to finish the
eastern wing. I thank the past benefactors of the uni-
versity who have contributed toward this building and
hope that you and your friends will enable us soon to com-
plete the other wing."
728 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Such a concourse of the Catholic Hierarchy as trod the
aisles of the Baltimore Cathedral on the following Sun-
day, the day of the main religious celebration of the
jubilee, had never before assembled — could not before
have been assembled — to honor any man in America.
There were ten Archbishops, including the Papal Dele-
gate, Mgr. Falconio, and forty-seven Bishops, many mon-
signori, abbots, the faculties of the Catholic University
and St. Mary's Seminary, priests and students. Some of
them came from remote regions of the country. Ireland,
of St. Paul, was there, of course. His tall form, upon
which storms of controversy had beaten almost unceas-
ingly for years, now seemed bent, his hair somewhat sil-
vered, but ardent affection for his leader still inspired him
as before. There were Farley, about to be made a Car-
dinal, and, with O'Connell, of Boston, to be the first
American princes of the Church elevated in twenty-five
years, during which time Gibbons alone held that distinc-
tion; Glennon, of St. Louis, gifted as an orator; Blenk,
of New Orleans, the city which, next to Baltimore,
claimed Gibbons as its own, and which only less than
Baltimore joined in spirit in the celebration; Prender-
gast, of Philadelphia ; Quigley, of Chicago, and Moeller,
of Cincinnati. Archbishop Bruchesi came from Montreal
to convey the felicitations of Canadian Catholics.
As Gibbons entered the Cathedral at the end of the
long procession, the choir burst forth in a choral march
composed for the occasion whose tones proclaimed:
"Hero I Thus do men acclaim him
Though he wields no warrior's sword."
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 729
The splendid services which followed were crowned
with the approbation of Pius X, from whom the follow-
ing letter was read : ^
''To our beloved son, James Cardinal Gibbons, Car-
dinal Priest of the title of St. Mary in Trastevere, Arch-
bishop of Baltimore, Pius PP. X. Health and Apostolic
benediction.
"Beloved Son — We have heard with gladness that all
the Bishops and the clergy of the United States, also
many distinguished men in every walk of life, are about
to celebrate your twofold jubilee, the fiftieth anniversary
of your ordination to the priesthood and the twenty-fifth
anniversary of your entry into the College of Cardinals.
Such universal joy at the forthcoming celebration of both
events proves to us the high esteem and the great venera-
tion in which you are held by all, not alone because of
your exalted office, but also because of your many gifts
of mind and character well known to us, not to speak of
the remarkable zeal that you display for the glory of the
Most High and the welfare of souls.
"The esteem and praise bestowed on the person of the
Bishop not only redound, as all know, to the honor and
splendor of his own church, but also serve to adorn the
universal Church of Christ. No one, therefore, has
greater reason than we, the chief pastor of the Catholic
religion, for deeply rejoicing at these festivities that give
us an excellent occasion of manifesting our particular
affection for you.
"With our whole heart we congratulate you and we
pray God that He may richly reward the abundant merits
of your piety. May He bestow upon you for many years
to come His most abundant graces and draw ever more
closely to you the hearts of your own devoted and loving
flock.
^Archives of the Baltimore Cathedral
730 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"As an evidence of the special love we bear you and a
harbinger of eternal happiness we add to our good wishes
the Apostolic benediction. Very lovingly do we grant it
to yourself, your clergy and the people confided to your
care, likewise to all who participate in the celebration of
the aforesaid jubilees.
"Given at St. Peter's, Rome, the 7th of May, in the
year iQii, and the eighth year of our Pontificate.
"Pius PP. X."
Glennon and Blenk were the voices of the Church in
this country who, in the preacher's place at the Pontifical
Mass and the Vesper service respectively, bespoke the
thoughts of American Catholics about their revered chief.
The Archbishop of St. Louis declared that his purpose
was "solely to tell the truth" about the Cardinal, not to
flatter, and he held to it. The position of his Eminence,
he said, was unique not alone in Church history, but in
world history as well. Glennon proceeded :
"In the defense of social order; in the promotion of
human right; in the supreme effort to maintain the social
fabric and the institutions of our beloved country, no
voice in all the broad land is today as potent, no person-
ality so influential as that of our beloved Cardinal.
"Indeed the position of Cardinal Gibbons is unique
not alone in Church history, but in world history as well.
There have been great Cardinals in the centuries that are
gone — Wolsey, Richelieu — but the opportunity of their
greatness arose in part at least from the union of Church
and State that then existed, and history tells us that they
served their king with far more zeal than they served their
God. We have had great Cardinals in modern times —
Wiseman, Manning, Newman — and again in part their
greatness came from the noble defense they made of .a
Church that was persecuted.
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 731
"We may not deny their greatness, their learning, their
consecration ; but, unlike any one member of either group,
our Cardinal stands with the same devotion to his coun-
try as Richelieu had for France, cultivating a citizenship
as unstained as Newman, and while reaching out to a
broader democracy than even Cardinal Manning, he still
remains pre-eminent in his unquestioned devotion to Holy
Church.
"And so, my friends, you have before you some of the
titles his Eminence has to our respect and reverence; so
many reasons why you should thank God that he so
blessed His servant and thereby blessed us all.
"Priest, Bishop, Cardinal, philosopher, lawgiver, chan-
cellor, yes, and let us not omit through all these high-
sounding titles that other — the first we notice, the last we
may forget —
'For he is gracious if he be observed
He hath a tear for pity and a hand
Open as day for meeting charity.'
"Yes, Cardinal Gibbons is a kindly, gentle man."
Archbishop Blenk spoke in an analytical vein of the
personality of Gibbons. Hundreds of men who were
present, in and out of the Hierarchy and the priesthood,
felt that they knew Gibbons as a familiar friend. Blenk
put into words the thoughts which clamored for expres-
sion within those who were capable of understanding him.
The head of the See of New Orleans had learned to know
him exceptionally well through intimate contact during
the Lenten visits of Gibbons to that city, and he revealed
the Cardinal intimately, as it were, to those in the multi-
tude who had no opportunity of observing him at close
range and in every aspect. He said:
732 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"No single treasure yielded us by these golden years
is more precious, it seems to me, than the revelation of
the Cardinal's personality. Rich in varied gifts, it is
above all remarkable for a perfect balance of powers, for
a happy blending of qualities that meet but rarely in one
person. We perceive in him a natural nobility and ele-
vation of soul, an innate dignity of character, a winning
simplicity, an unfailing courtesy, an instinctive and al-
most unerring sense of whatsoever is just, is right, is true
and noble ; a charity unfeigned, that excludes no man and
no class of men, that heeds no prejudice, cherishes no ran-
cor, rises above injury, harbors no resentment, is single-
minded in its devotion to the good of others; a faith un-
clouded and undimmed that receives the words of the
Divine Saviour with the simplicity of a child, penetrates
their meaning with the keenness of a sage and makes their
spirit his second nature; a faith that can be sure of itself
without impugning the sincerity of others who receive it
not ; a whole-hearted faith, ardent in its zeal to convince,
yet never intemperate; a faith that is Catholic in every
fibre and absolutely loyal to the Vicar of Christ, reposing
undisturbed on that rock which unbelief, ignorance,
hatred and misguided zeal have beat against, age after
age, in vain assault; a mind devoid of all pretensions,
humble, open, and even now, on the verge of fourscore,
willing to learn; intent upon the practical, averse to
subtleties, aiming at the heart of a question and reaching
it with rare insight ; a mind firm in its grasp of ideas and
principles, clear in conception and always simple, direct
and clear in exposition, faultless in tact and sure in knowl-
edge of the mind it seeks to persuade ; conscious of its own
rectitude, respectful of adversaries, giving no cause of
offense, yet speaking out the truth with warmth and
without tremor of fear; gifted with the supreme endow-
ment of wisdom and good sense, free from illusory
schemes, yet ever hopeful and buoyant; in all things a
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 733
good, true and wise man, a gentleman, a priest of God,
a Bishop and Prince of the Church.
"God meant him for a leader of his people. Looking
back over that long life, we can now discern the special
Providence that guided his every step and prepared him
for his destined work. We see him nurtured in the love
of religion and virtue; we see him led by Providence in
boyhood to the Isle of Saints, where his spirit waxed
strong in the pure air of Catholic faith; we see him deeply
impressed in youth by a remarkable man whose ardent
missionary zeal was made all the more yearning by ad-
miration and love for his countrymen; we see him pass
into that school which stamped forever the ideals of the
priesthood upon his very soul.
"Since twenty-five years ago, he has been 'Our Car-
dinal,' and there is no doubt that the dignity has added
not only a distinction to his personality but new force to
his influence. The Cardinal's robes, it is true, are a trial
as well as an honor. In them the small man appears
smaller, but the man of high moral stature, the church-
man of wisdom and broad intelligence, stands forth in
greater vigor and grace. Cardinal Gibbons has stood the
test.
"How long he has held the nation as his audience!
Great orators and statesmen have risen since then and
gained the ear of the people; today they are heard no
more. Presidents have come and gone, and already the
memory of some is beginning to grow dim. But all during
this quarter century the Cardinal has grown in influence ;
today, as for many years past — can I not truly say*? —
there is no other speaker upon topics of abiding interest
whom the American people hear so gladly.
"He could not speak as your pastor only, O Catholic
people of Maryland; as Cardinal, as Primate of the
American Hierarchy, as Bishop of the National Capital,
he belongs to the whole country. Many, indeed, outside
734. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Church listen to him as to the 'Voice of Religion,' for
prejudice disarms when the Cardinal speaks.
"He, more than any other among us, has directed the
course of Catholicism in our land. But, above all, he has
expressed most truly and most clearly the Catholic
thought and sentiment of America and thereby crystal-
lized them ; he has been our representative to this age and
nation. His influence, overflowing into all the channels
of our life, cannot be adequately described, but I would
invite you, my brethren, to consider it in its relation to
the national sentiment, to the moral and social better-
ment of the people and to the religious life of the nation."
Even more than at the services in the Cathedral the
affection of the Hierarchy and priesthood for Gibbons
was shown in the atmosphere which pervaded a dinner
in honor of the visiting Bishops, held on the same day at
St. Mary's Seminary. With restraint removed, there
was a singular demonstration of what may be termed
the general state of mind — the morale, it would be called
in secular life — of the higher organization of the Church
in this country. Under Gibbons, a born leader, as his
colleagues had abundantly testified, the spirit of devotion
to their chief, the happy personal relations existing be-
tween them and him and the inspiration to general har-
mony and aggressive work would have served as a model
for any man whose life is spent in the organization of
large material undertakings.
Gibbons was not more ready to lead than the Bishops
and clergy were to follow. Possessing an almost unique
faculty for reaching into the inner lives of a great number
of persons, even the remembrance of whose names would
overtax the memory of an ordinary individual, he had
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 735
bound them to him by the strongest ties. They trusted
and loved him and believed in his justice; more than that,
they saw in his leadership a powerful force which made
their own efforts visibly more fruitful in dioceses through-
out the land. Their own standing in the public view
was enhanced by his prestige. If any scoffer doubted that
the Catholic Church produced the highest and best type
of manhood, the choice fruit and flower of religious life,
they could point to Gibbons. He was an exemplar for
the whole Church and a help to the whole Church. His
unceasing labors for years, often in the face of discour-
agements that would have crushed a less resolute soul,
seeing clearly where the view was dark to others, heeding
not misunderstanding and distrust, had become an influ-
ence which was felt in the humblest mission in the land,
no less than in the splendid temples of the Catholic faith
whose spires pointed to heaven in the seats of the archi-
episcopal sees.
This discipline, using the word in its ordinary and not
its ecclesiastical sense, was the discipline of armies which
win battles; of governments which accomplish large and
sustained results; of great industrial undertakings whose
activities span the civilized world. To whatever extent
it had existed in the Church in America before, it had
been greatly amplified by Gibbons. He had inspired
every Catholic with a new spirit of confidence.
The unity and obedience which are fundamental in the
system of the Church must produce cohesion always.
Thus she proceeds serenely as a compact unit upon her
mission to the souls of men. In the same general sense,
but of course by different methods and for different aims,
736 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
armies are disciplined, obeying their officers according to
gradations of rank; but not every army conquers, how-
ever obedient to the will and guidance of its leader. Gib-
bons inspired American Catholics much in the same way
that the great generals of history have inspired their
troops. Whatever successes they were able to win with-
out him, their potency was multiplied by the consummate
skill of their leader and the conquering enthusiasm which
he inspired by means of his own personality.
In the addresses at the feast of good feeling at the
seminary, words proceeded straight from the hearts of
those who spoke them. Simple truth and affectionate
hope predominated. Archbishop Farley went so far as
to express the wish that "before he is gathered to the
golden gate of eternity our American Cardinal might pass
still higher to the one great place in Rome," meaning
of course, the Papacy.
Archbishop Ireland declared that "it was Cardinal
Gibbons who was the chief factor in bringing home to the
American Church the opportunities for growth and suc-
cess under the guidance of this free country." He pro-
ceeded :
"Often as I watched with straining eyes this ship of
ours I asked myself 'How is it in Baltimore *?' for I knew
that Cardinal Gibbons was there. I knew his power and
prestige — whether it be a question of political or ecclesias-
tical importance — and I knew that standing there on the
deck of our ship Cardinal Gibbons was at the helm. And
let me tell you that he always gave the helm the right
twist.
"The providential gift to America in the last fifty
years was James Gibbons. I have differed with him
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 737
sometimes as I watched Baltimore to see how things were
going. I thought that perhaps his Eminence might go
faster, or he might go slower, or that he might go
straighter instead of taking the roundabout path, but
when all was over he had given the helm the right twist."
Bishop Donahue, of Wheeling, recalling the years he
spent in the household of Gibbons, said :
"They say you must live with a man to know him, and
if that be true, then, privileged as I was to live at the
archiepiscopal residence with his Eminence, I found my
superior a prelate worthy of the best ages of faith, a liv-
ing, breathing exponent of all that was good in a Car-
dinal of the Holy Catholic Church."
Bishop Donahue then, in a delicately humorous man-
ner which made the Cardinal smile, told of some of his
personal traits, and said:
"His Eminence is a painful model of punctuality and
the virtue of doing the most with the time God gives us
here on earth. Many a high prelate of this distinguished
presence has caught a train by a hair's breadth and hung
on by his coat tails only to find his Eminence safely with-
in the arms of a chair inside the car. Punctuality, how-
ever, while a virtue of the Cardinal, is not a cardinal vir-
tue, and while you can't teach old persons new tricks I
recommend this virtue to the young priests here assem-
bled."
There were many other expressions of love and grati-
tude. Gibbons had not expected to make any response,
but he was so overwhelmed by the evident sincerity of
his brethren that he was moved to reconsider his decision.
He exclaimed :
738 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Honors I have had in my life until I am almost
ashamed, but I assure you, in the presence of God, that I
cherish one grain of your love more than all the lauda-
tions which have been heaped upon me. When I con-
trast the difficulties which encompassed us in the former
days and the enlightened conditions of to-day, with
prejudice almost entirely swept away, I see a great vision
of a future when there shall be but one God, one faith
and one baptism."
Such an occasion as the jubilee could not fail to de-
velop many anecdotes of association with Gibbons, or
influences which he had produced. Monsignor Patter-
son, of Boston, told of addressing a large class of young
men, and asking if some one of them would mention the
name of a truly great man. A member of the class, who
had met the Cardinal and heard him preach, at once
mentioned Gibbons. Monsignor Patterson asked why he
considered the Cardinal a truly great man.
"Because," replied the young student, "he is a truly
humble man."
On the following night, Monday, there was a public
parade in Baltimore in honor of the jubilee. Those who
organized it, and who did not lack the optimism cus-
tomary in such cases, had predicted that twenty thousand
persons would march. When the time came to compute
the number actually in line, it was found that they had
swelled to thirty-one thousand.
The parade was made up of Catholic organizations
from Baltimore and Washington and groups from par-
ishes, many of whom were in emblematic costumes. Gib-
bons reviewed the procession from the Cathedral portico,
THE HIERARCHY'S PLAUDITS 739
and was naturally amazed at the extent of it. In a letter
of thanks to those who had participated, he wrote :
"They were great moments when I sat in front of the
Cathedral and viewed the noble throng passing."
Gibbons was particularly active in encouraging lay
organizations within the Church, and one of the events
of his jubilee was a general convention in Baltimore of
the Holy Name Society, whose aim is to suppress pro-
fanity and immorality in general. He made an address
to the convention in which he exhorted the members to
renewed efforts.
There were numerous receptions and other events in
honor of the festivities of the week, and on Thursday a
special service was held at the Cathedral for children.
Delegations visited Gibbons, presenting to him addresses
and gifts, the latter including a rosary of gold nuggets
from the Knights of Columbus. At St. Mary's Industrial
School, the institution for boys in which he found so
often vent for his desire to show his interest in the young,
a large chapel named in his honor had just been erected,
and he was present at the services of dedication. So far
did his interest in the school extend that he sometimes
turned aside from his greatest preoccupations to pay a
visit to it, or to lend his advice and guidance upon some
subject connected with its management or discipline. The
welfare of a waif seemed no less precious to him than the
welfare of a President.
CHAPTER XLI
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS
The records of written and spoken words leave no
doubt that there was a distinct vein of the prophetic in
Gibbons. We have already seen that on that Good
Friday night in 1865 when Lincoln was assassinated he
preached in Baltimore a few hours before the President
was stricken down, picturing the general outline of the
circumstances of that event without any conscious idea
that the "benevolent ruler" of whose sudden end he was
speaking, apparently as an imaginative simile, was the
head of his own nation. Another instance was given on
the morning of February 7, 1904, when the great Balti-
more fire began, whose ravages spread within one hun-
dred yards of the archiepiscopal residence and would
have destroyed it had not the wind changed.
It was the first Sunday of the month, and, as usual on
such occasions, the Cardinal had prepared in advance a
sermon to be delivered at the Cathedral. The topic which
he had chosen for his discourse was "The Uses of Ad-
versity," and it could scarcely have been more appropri-
ate had he intended it directly for the guidance of the
congregation with full knowledge of the impending
calamity. He enumerated some of the reverses of for-
tune to which human beings are subject, such as a fall
740
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 741
from opulence to poverty and a sudden visitation of
Providence, and proceeded:
"If tribulation is a law of human life, it is also, thank
God, a law and condition of Christian progress and per-
fection. . . . The teaching of Christian philosophy with
regard to the uses of adversity may be summed up in one
short sentence — that it is to be borne with patience and
even with joy. . . . What we call accidents are links
in the chain of our immortal destiny."
Enumerating afflictions to be borne with patience, he
gave the illustration of a person inordinately attached
to earthly riches, in whose case "a financial crash comes
which reduces you to straitened circumstances. You are
thereby admonished to accept the situation in the spirit
of Job, and to say with him 'The Lord hath given and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the
Lord.' "
He warned against considering any trial as crushing,
quoting from the Persian poet Sadi as follows :
"Once I murmured at the vicissitudes of fortune when
my feet were bare, and I had not the means of procuring
shoes. I entered a mosque with a heavy heart, and there
beheld a man deprived of his feet. I offered up my
praise and thanksgiving to Heaven for its bounty, and
bore with patience the want of shoes."
The admonition was especially appropriate to the con-
gregation of the Cathedral, which embraced an excep-
tionally large proportion of the wealthy men whose places
of business in downtown Baltimore were about to be
reduced to ruins.
742 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
As the service began, there had been no indication that
a great fire had started, but when Gibbons left the
church after its conclusion he found the streets thronged
with excited people and resounding with the clang of fire
engines. Some hours later, large embers began to fall on
the Cathedral grounds and an ash tree in the yard, naked
of foliage in the winter wind, caught fire. All that day
and the next the conflagration continued, causing a loss
estimated at $125,000,000 and visiting upon Baltimore
one of the most appalling blows which any American city
ever sustained.^
Gibbons had arranged to start for New Orleans for a
visit to his brother on the evening of the first day of the
fire, and he left before the disaster had reached its full
extent. Not until he arrived in New Orleans did he learn
that the principal business district of the city, the dis-
trict in which he had been accustomed to take many of
his noonday walks, had been laid in ashes.
The treasured archives of the diocese, from Carroll's
time down, were stored in his residence and would have
been destroyed had the flames swept only a little further
north. His predecessors had been content to leave them
in loose heaps or in barrels, but he had taken pains to
have them carefully sorted out and indexed in a manner
worthy of their value. The danger to which they were
subjected by the great fire was not forgotten. By his
direction the archives were removed to a space beneath
the Cathedral, where they were comparatively safe from
another disaster of the same kind.
In some of the chief events of his life his course was
*HalI, History of Baltimore, p. 343.
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 743
such as to seem, in the light of future events, to have
been based upon fore-knowledge. When struggling
against ecclesiastical condemnation of the Knights of
Labor, he had taken the ground that that organization
contained within itself the seeds of dissolution, and that
in a short time it would probably be so insignificant in
importance that the ban of the Church against it would
mean little, while condemnation would be taken as a di-
rect rebuke to the general aspiration of labor to organize
for its own betterment. This view, amply verified later,
he expressed at a time when many observers of the situa-
tion were predicting that the organization of the Knights
would spread to such gigantic proportions that it would
dominate the political life of the country and become
in effect a dictatorship.
Again, had Gibbons possessed knowledge that the
World W^ar was little more than a decade and a half
distant, he could scarcely have been more urgent in de-
manding that the Cahensly movement for solidifying for-
eign national groups in the Church in America should be
throttled. His course throughout the struggle against
Cahenslyism appeared to be based upon a realization that
the danger of foreign influence impairing American unity
was at the door of his country instead of being remote,
as so many leaders of public opinion were inclined to
think. He summoned every resource at his command in
order to stay the movement, almost as if he had been
engaged in the physical defense of the country against
an alien invader. His effort was put forth, as if by in-
sight, so that it would begin to produce the maximum ef-
fect about the time the World War actually began. In
744 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
view of the fact that the obstacles to coalescing public
sentiment in the United States without a period of prep-
aration after the European nations were already locked in
conflict were one of the chief causes which delayed
American participation with the Allies, it is not difficult
to take the view that the campaign against Cahenslyisni
waged by Gibbons in the years 1886-1891 was nothing
short of a providential forerunner of the course of
events.
Gibbons bestowed upon the Catholic University the
affection which a devoted parent might lavish upon a
favorite child. "From the beginning," he said, "the
university has been for me an object of deepest personal
concern. Through its growth and through all the vicissi-
tudes which it has experienced, it has been very near to
my heart. It has cost me, in anxiety and tension of spirit,
far more than any other of the duties or cares which have
fallen to my lot. But for this reason, I feel a greater
satisfaction in its progress." ^ Pius X, in a letter to
Gibbons encouraging the work of the university in 1912,
wrote that "we have good reason to congratulate first of
all you, beloved son, to whose solicitous and provident
care we ascribe the prosperous condition of the uni-
versity."
A blow which almost crushed Gibbons was the failure
in business in 1904 of Thomas E. Waggaman, treasurer
of the university, as a result of which $850,000 of its in-
vestments were temporarily lost and never fully regained.
He was overwhelmed by this at first; but threw all his
strength into a determined effort to recover for the uni-
" Bishop Shahan in the Ecclesiastical Revieiv, May, 1921.
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 745
versity what it had lost. Contributions were sent to him
by non-Catholics as well as Catholics, including not a
few from men prominent in public life who had learned
to admire him, and to whom the pathetic aspect of his
loss strongly appealed.
Some large gifts were subsequently made to the uni-
versity, and these sustained Gibbons in his hopefulness
for the institution. He wrote a letter of warm apprecia-
tion to the Knights of Columbus in June, 1913, when
they presented $500,000 to the institution for the per-
petual education of fifty lay students there. The Knights
had previously given $50,000 to found a chair of Ameri-
can history. He lived to see the resources of the uni-
versity reach a total valuation of $5,000,000.
April 15, 19,15, was one of the brightest days of the
Cardinal's life, for then the university, in the presence
of a great gathering of the Hierarchy and clergy, cele-
brated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its opening. He
delivered the sermon at a Pontifical High Mass cele-
brated in St. Patrick's Church, Washington, to mark
the event, saying:
"The experience of these twenty-five years empha-
sizes the needs which the university aims to supply —
the need of Divine truth to complete our human knowl-
edge, of Divine justice as the highest sanction of law, of
the spirit of Christ in our ministrations of mercy and love.
There is no real liberty without law, and there is no
meaning or validity to law unless it be observed.
"The growth of democracy does not imply that each
man shall become a law unto himself, but that he shall
feel in himself the obligation to obey. If the enacting
power has been transferred from the will of the ruler
746 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to the will of the people, the binding, coercive power
has been laid with greater stress of responsibility than
ever before upon the individual conscience.
"Unless men be taught that obedience is right and
honorable and necessary alike for private interest and
the public weal, legislation will avail but little, the law-
making power will become a mockery and the people
themselves will complain that legislation has been car-
ried to excess.
"But conscience has need of a higher sanction than
any merely human sense of justice. To meet the require-
ments of our religious, social and political situation is a
duty that we owe to the Church and to our country. To
fulfill it we must combine our efforts, and I rejoice that
in the Catholic University a centre of thought and action
has been provided."
A letter from Benedict XV was read, commending the
institution in the highest terms, and felicitating it upon
the work which it was doing for the people among whom
it was planted. He wrote:
"We love, nay, we dearly cherish the American people,
forceful as they are with the vigor of youth and second to
none in efficiency of action and thought. And as we ear-
nestly desire that an ever-widening path to the highest
level of human achievement may open before them, so
we cannot but feel the deepest pleasure at everything that
furthers their progress."
Gibbons reposed great confidence in Bishop Shahan,
the rector of the university in the closing years of his life,
under whose administration its progress consoled him for
some of his earlier disappointments.
He often took the opportunity on important ecclesias-
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 747
tical occasions to implant the view that the performance
of civic duty was a part of a Christian's responsibility.
At the celebration of the centenary of the New York
archdiocese in 1908, he delivered the sermon in St.
Patrick's Cathedral April 29, on which occasion Car-
dinal Logue celebrated Pontifical Mass; and Arch-
bishop Falconio, the Apostolic Delegate, imparted the
Papal benediction. In the sermon he dwelt upon the
strong men who had helped to build up the diocese since
it was separated from the mother See of Baltimore by
Pius VII. He regarded Archbishop Hughes as having
been providentially raised to meet the exigencies of the
times, as Carroll had been. Of the piety and learning
of Archbishop Corrigan, his opponent in the consideration
of so many questions on which leaders of the Church
might naturally differ, he did not fail to speak in terms
of warm praise. To the whole assembly he addressed this
admonition :
"Take an active, loyal, personal interest in all that
concerns the temporal and spiritual welfare of our be-
loved country. No man should be a drone in the social
beehive. No one should be an indifferent spectator of
the social, economic and political events occurring around
him. As you all enjoy the protection of a strong and
enlightened government, so should each man have a share
in sustaining the burden of the Commonwealth. Above
all, take an abiding and a vital interest in all that affects
your holy religion." ^
Feeling that the problems of Catholics throughout the
English-speaking countries in contending with misun-
"McNally, The Catholic Centennial, pp. 52-61.
748 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
derstanding were much the same, Gibbons showed an es-
pecial desire to cooperate with his brethren of the faith
in those countries. He accepted an invitation to attend
the International Eucharistic Congress in Montreal in
September, 1910. Cardinal Vincent Vannutelli at-
tended the Congress in the capacity of Papal Legate, as
he had attended the London congress two years before,
but under far different circumstances; for government
and people, in Canada, under the same flag that floated
over the mother country, welcomed him with a cordiality
which was in striking contrast to his cool reception in
the British metropolis. Accompanied by Cardinals Gib-
bons and Logue he carried the Host through the streets
in a procession which was five hours in passing. Non-
Catholics as well as Catholics watched reverently in the
throngs which turned out to witness that religious spec-
tacle, and no untoward incident marked the events of the
day. Gibbons preached at the Pontifical High Mass in
the Cathedral of St. James.
"Your Eminence will be able to recount to the Holy
Father," he said to Cardinal Vannutelli in conclusion,
"the success which has crowned this congress from be-
ginning to end. . . . You will speak of the solemn pub-
lic procession through the streets of Montreal not only
without let or hindrance, but with the cordial co-opera-
tion and approval of the civic authorities and the piety
and enthusiasm of the people."
The admiration for Gibbons felt by the world-wide
representation of Catholics assembled in the city was
shown at a fete given in his honor by Sir Thomas George
Shaughnessy. Soon after the close of the celebration in
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 749
Montreal, Cardinal Vannutelli visited him in Balti-
more, where the Roman prelate was welcomed with a
procession in which leading men of the city escorted him
to the Cathedral.
Although the spirit of Gibbons rebounded from many-
experiences which would have unnerved most men, he
was plunged into depths of despondency when he discov-
ered that one of his priests, the pastor of a small congre-
gation in Baltimore, had become overwhelmed in specu-
lation and had accumulated debts amounting to more
than $30,000.* This priest had felt an ambition to erect
a new church for his people, and, realizing that in their
poverty they would be unable to pay for it, he had con-
ceived the plan of embarking in financial ventures with
a view to raising the money through what he vainly sup-
posed to be his own skill in business. He paid one debt
by contracting another until finally the nature of his
operations became known to the Cardinal. The priest
was removed at once from his pastorate and sent to a
sanatorium, for the mania on the subject of speculation
which he had developed was pronounced by medical opin-
ion to be a form of insanity.
Gibbons was so overcome that the priests of his house-
hold were shocked at intervals for several days to observe
him wringing his hands and declaring that his life had
been wrecked — that life which had left so many
deep impressions upon the world! That no person
might suffer from the wrong which had been done, he
pledged himself to pay every dollar that the priest owed,
although there was no legal obligation upon him to do so.
* March, 1909.
750 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
By energetic efforts he obtained, in less than six months,
enough funds to discharge the last of the debts. When
attempts were made to explain the priest's conduct on
the ground of mental irresponsibility. Gibbons would ad-
mit no trace of excuse for it. So keenly did he feel the
reproach which he feared would be brought upon the
Church that it made him ill.
A discussion which attracted marked attention in the
Christian world in 1910 was between Cardinal Gibbons
and Thomas A. Edison, the famous inventor, on the sub-
ject of immortality. Edison denied the doctrine. Rea-
soning as a material scientist, he asserted that man was
not an individual, but a collection of myriads of individ-
uals as a city was. He expounded his theory thus :
"The cell, minute and little known, is the real and only
individual. A man is made up of many million cells.
Not being, in effect, an individual, how could he go to
heaven or hell as an individual or be given a reward or
punishment after death had caused the separation of his
cells and the diffusion of their collective intelligence*?
. . . We are no more individuals than cities are. . . .
If you cut your hand it bleeds. Then you lose cells, and
that is quite as if a city lost inhabitants through some
tremendous accident."
It was the mind, he argued, that was divine, if he
should admit the word at all, and mind consisted of the
collective intellect of all the cells which constituted a
man. To punish or reward the combined soul of the
great cell-collection would be as unjust as it would be
impossible and "Nature is as just as she is merciless."
Edison was careful to say that this did not affect his firm
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 751
belief in the "great moral law," which he summed up in
the precepts of the Golden Rule. He continued :
"Science proves its theories, or it rejects them. I have
never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious
theories of heaven and hell ; of future life for individuals
or of a personal God. . . . Proof ! Proof ! That is what
I have always been after; that is what my mind requires
before it can accept a theory as a fact. ... I do not
know the soul. I know the mind. If there really is any
soul, I have found, in my investigations, no evidence of
it."
Edison expressed no doubt of a Supreme Intelligence,
but could not personify it. Life, it appeared to him, went
on endlessly, but no more in human beings than in other
animals or even in vegetables. While life, collectively,
must be immortal, human beings, individually, could not
be such, he held, because they were not individuals but
mere aggregates of cells. The core of the great scientist's
premise, argument and conclusion was summed up in the
declaration: "There is no supernatural."
Cardinal Gibbons, in his reply, went to the root of the
question by pointing out that while Edison's general
theme was a denial, it was a denial based on assertion.^
He wrote:
"The most striking assertion is his fundamental one
that cells have intelligence. Mr. Edison does not try to
prove it ; he asserts it over and over again. And he claims
to accept no scientific fact without the final proof. Now,
who ever proved the existence of an intelligent cell?
There is not a scintilla of proof, not the beginning of a
proof for such an assertion."
'Columbian Magazine, March, 1911.
752 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Cardinal cited as an example the remark of Mr.
Edison that when one cuts his hand and it bleeds, there is
a loss of cells, as if a city lost some of its inhabitants. He
reasoned :
"If my hand bleeds, then, according to his theory, I lose
part of my intelligence. If I lose my hand then I lose
more intelligence; and, as one of my friends put it, an
appalling loss of mind would go with the loss of a leg or
when a stout man reduces in flesh."
It seemed to him that "what Edison really meant
was that the mind is made up of the combined intelli-
gence of the brain cells; but so far as science knows,
there is no more proof of the existence of intelligence
in a brain cell than in the cell of a potato." He pro-
ceeded :
"We do know that there is a connection between the
brain and the mind, that the mind thinks through the aid
of the brain, as it sees through the aid of the nerves of the
eye; but that does not prove that the brain thinks any
more than it proves that the nerves of the eyes see; no
more even than it would prove that the strings of a violin
enjoy their own music. If we do not know that cells
have intelligence, how can we know that any combination
of cells can produce intelligence? Yet Mr. Edison be-
lieves it. . . .
"We know nothing, then, about intelligent cells; but
we do know that a man has an intelligent mind or soul.
We do not distinguish between mind and soul in the way
Mr. Edison does, in his unphilosophical terminology.
The mind is the soul in its intellectual operations."
The Cardinal pointed to revealed religion as proof that
the soul endures after death and proceeded:
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 753
''Christ brings to humanity the certainty of eternal
life. He proved it by His own resurrection ; and, if any
one thinks that the evidence of Christ's resurrection is
weak, I ask him to study and think deeply over the fif-
teenth chapter of First Corinthians. No sane scholar
denies that we have here the testimony of St. Paul him-
self; nor that St. Paul is honestly setting down the tes-
timony of those who claim to have seen our Lord after
his death. If so many sane men, Apostles and Disciples
of Christ, are mistaken; if they can not believe the testi-
many of their own eyes, if delusion can keep such a firm
hold on so many different characters for so many years
and become the basis of all their beliefs and the trans-
forming power of their lives, then no human testimony
is of any value; then let us close our courts of justice,
for no case is proven by so many trustworthy witnesses."
The Cardinal also showed that the human mind, apart
from the evidences of religion, was able to reason up to
the immortality of the soul.
Throughout his life, he retained vivid memories of his
early labors in North Carolina, and he did not allow the
associations which he had formed there to lapse. In 1910,
he preached at the dedication of St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral
in Wilmington, a handsome house of worship which suc-
ceeded the modest church in which he had sat as presid-
ing Bishop of the diocese more than forty years before.
Bishop Haid in an address to him at the services said that
"your presence here to-day is but another proof of your
undying love for the people and for the scenes of your
earliest episcopal labors."
In the same year the North Carolina Society of Bal-
timore presented to him a memorial volume filled with
754 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
manuscripts, photographs, and prints associated with
his work in that State. In accepting it, he told the dele-
gation of the society which called at his residence that
the people of North Carolina had welcomed him in 1868
with open arms, regardless of faith, and he expressed
deep gratitude to them. He added:
"With the interest of a young lady reading her first
novel, I will read this novel of my younger days. After I
have read it, it will be placed among the most treasured
archives of the Cathedral of Baltimore."
He sustained a heavy personal loss in the death on
February 11, 191 1, of Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia,
a companion and prop to him in the most fruitful years
of his career. Sharing the fate of men who live excep-
tionally long, he saw one after another of those who had
been bound closest to him disappear from earth. A few
days before Ryan's death, the Cardinal went to Philadel-
phia to visit him. Entering the sick room, he placed his
hand upon the Archbishop's brow and said softly :
"Your Grace does not know me."
The Archbishop, who had been hovering on the verge
of unconsciousness, answered in a sudden rally of his
faculties :
"I know every tone of your Eminence's voice and now,
as ever, I am convinced that you are the instrument of
Providence for every good thing for our Church and
country."
The sick prelate, seemingly endowed with new
strength, talked for some minutes with the Cardinal.
They spoke of men and things long gone, of mutual hopes
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 755
that had blossomed or withered. Naturally their thoughts
turned to the future of the nation, which they had served
so faithfully.
"If we keep America conservative," said the Arch-
bishop, "no country will be as great as this."
Tears were in the eyes of Gibbons as he departed from
the house of the dying. Another sympathizer, a Prot-
estant, who visited the Archbishop shortly before the end
came, said that it seemed like entering a room filled
with angels.
One of the views which Gibbons held tenaciously was
that the American laity should take an active and en-
lightened part in the Church's multiform work for the
welfare of humanity. It was his view that the laity in
the United States possessed a special capacity for coop-
eration with the Bishops owing to their independent char-
acter and their spirit of initiative. In an address at the
opening of a convention of the American Federation of
Catholic Societies in Milwaukee, August lo, 1913, he
said:
"An enlightened and zealous laity is the glory of the
Christian Church. The most luminous periods of the
Church's history have been epochs conspicuous for lay-
men who have vindicated the cause of Christianity by
their eloquence and their writings, as well as by the sanc-
tity of their lives.
"Among the notable defenders of the Catholic religion
in the nineteenth century I mention Chateaubriand,
Montalembert, the Count de Maistre and Frederick
Ozanam, in France ; Gorres, Windhorst, Mallinckrodt, in
Germany; Donoso Cortes, in Spain; Sir Kenelm Digby,
W. G. Ward and Frederick Lucas, in England; the
756 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
peerless O'Connell, in Ireland; Brownson and many other
lights in the United States.
"Let us indulge the hope — and this hope I cherish in
my breast when I contemplate the scene before me today
— that God will raise up in our own country and in oui*
own day a formidable number of champions of Christ,
who will be 'a light to the revelation of the Gentiles and
the glory of the people of Israel.'
"If I may single out one society without prejudice to
the merits of the others, I will name in a particular man-
ner that splendid organization, the Knights of Columbus.
They are our joy and crown. 'They are the glory of Je-
rusalem. They are the joy of Israel; they are the honor
of our people.' Wherever calumny raises its foul head,
they are ever ready, like true knights, to smite the enemy.
Whenever an appeal is made in the cause of religion or
charity, they are always foremost in lending a helping
hand.
"Brethren of the laity, we of the clergy need your help.
We learn from the history of the primitive Church what
valuable aid the early Christians rendered to the Apostles
in the propagation of the Gospel. And if the Apostles
with all their piety, zeal and grace, fresh from the in-
spiring presence of their Master, could not have accom-
plished what they did without the assistance of the laity,
how can we, who have not the measure of their gifts, hope
to spread the light of truth without your hearty concur-
rence?"
Gibbons maintained close ties with St. Charles' Col-
lege, where he had pursued his early studies in prepara-
tion for the priesthood. He was greatly grieved when
the college was destroyed by fire March 17, 1911, and,
as usual, expressed his sentiments in acts, contributing
$10,000 to aid in rebuilding the institution.
SOME BARENTS OF LATER YEARS 757
His last meeting with Pius X was in the course of
a visit to Rome in the Spring of 1914, when he took
part in a consistory, Thomas Nelson Page, the American
ambassador in that city, gave a luncheon in his honor.
On May 26 Gibbons entertained sixty guests at dinner,
including ten Cardinals, among whom were Farley and
O'Connell.
On the way home he stopped in Switzerland, where he
was the guest of Francis de Sales Jenkins at Territet, near
Montreux, on the shore of Lake Geneva, where he was
invigorated by motor trips and by walks in the surround-
ing forests. Queen Elizabeth, of Belgium, who was in
that vicinity, having expressed her desire to meet him, was
invited to breakfast at the residence at which he was a
guest, where Gibbons received her both with graciousness
and with the honor befitting her rank. Soon afterward
he proceeded to Brussels, where he accepted an invitation
to visit King Albert at the palace. He was much im-
pressed by the King's wide knowledge of American af-
fairs, which was abundantly in evidence later.
In London he was the guest of Cardinal Bourne, and
received the deference due him as the foremost prelate
of the English-speaking world. A writer in the London
Universe hailed him as first among Americans, saying:
"Two great Americans were this week simultaneously
in London. On Tuesday, I was privileged to chat for sev-
eral minutes with the greater. The other is Mr. Roosevelt.
. . . Cardinal Gibbons is a greater national institution
of America than the greatest of its politicians. . . .
Whatever has been achieved in the building up of Ameri-
can greatness has been due in no small measure to the
758 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
leavening power in the States of Cardinal Gibbons' per-
sonality."
Gibbons returned to Baltimore July 13, unconscious of
the convulsion which was soon to shake some of the coun-
tries of Europe which he had just visited.
He passed the golden jubilee of his episcopate in 1918
and was besought to consent to a great celebration of that
event, but all plans for its observance on a large scale in
Baltimore in the autumn were dropped because of a gen-
eral abandonment of public gatherings on account of the
influenza epidemic, which cost hundreds of thousands of
lives throughout the civilized world in that year. Bene-
dict XV honored him with the following letter : ®
''To Our Beloved Son^
''James Cardinal Gibbons,
"Archbishop of Baltimore,
"Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic Benediction :
"We have lately received the good news that during
the coming October, on the happy occasion of the golden
jubilee of your episcopate, your fellow-citizens purpose to
honor you with signal marks of their affection and joy.
Indeed, in so illustrious a manner have you won the high
esteem of men in the sight of all your fellow-Americans
that it can hardly be a matter of surprise that not only
your clergy and people, bound to you by ties of affection,
but also men of every order, should join in paying you
honor. May you enjoy the fruits of your piety and re-
ligious observance, bearing in mind that an abundant
measure of reward is to be expected from Him who
'rendereth unto every man according to his works.'
"As for ourselves, we join our grateful thanks with
yours to the God who has sustained you, and, moreover,
* Cathedral Archives, Baltimore.
SOME EVENTS OF LATER YEARS 759
we wish your joy to be augmented by our own congratu-
lations, for, indeed, it is pleasing to us to fold in our
fatherly embrace those who, like yourself, have labored
long in the office of the Good Shepherd. We are sending
to you a souvenir of the happy day, which, at the same
time, is a testimony of our affection for you.
"Moreover, beseeching God to regard favorably your
supplications, we empower you, in our name, on the day
of your jubilee, at the solemn sacrifice, to bless those pres-
ent, announcing a plenary indulgence to be gained by fol-
lowing the usual conditions. And as a pledge of heavenly
rewards and as a proof of our own affection for you, be-
loved son, we lovingly in the Lord impart to you and
yours the Apostolic benediction.
"Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on this fourth day of
September, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine
hundred and eighteen and the fifth of our pontificate.
"Benedict PP. XV."
A delegation headed by the Rt. Rev. Frederick E.
Keating, Bishop of Northampton, was sent by the Hier-
archy of England, with the good will of the British gov-
ernment, to express the congratulations of English Cath-
olics. A French delegation headed by the Rt. Rev.
Eugene Julien, Bishop of Arras, also came to present
felicitations. The Church in Belgium sent Mgr. Carton
de Wiart, canon of the diocese of Namur, on a similar
mission.
On February 20 of the following year there was an
imposing celebration of the jubilee at the Catholic Uni-
versity, attended by more than eighty prelates, including
Cardinals O'Connell, of Boston, and Begin, of Quebec.
On that occasion a purse of $50,000, the gift of his fel-
low-Archbishops and Bishops, was presented to Gibbons.
760 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Archbishop Cerretti, then assistant Papal Secretary of
State, for whom, when he had been attached to the Papal
legation in Washington, Gibbons had cherished warm
regard, was present as a representative of the Pope.
Gibbons, in his address, spoke from the viewpoint of
his long perspective in the Church, saying :
"At the close of the Third Plenary Council, over which
I had the honor to preside, I addressed the assembled prel-
ates and referred to the words which St. Paul wrote
to Timothy, because they did not despise my youth. If
your predecessors in the episcopate were so forbearing to
me in my youthful experiences, you have always been
kind and considerate to me in my declining years.
"I am today the sole survivor of the nearly one thou-
sand Bishops who attended the Vatican Council. What
is still more noteworthy, I am actually the only survivor
of the eighty prelates who attended the Third Plenary
Council of 1884. The last to descend below the horizon
of the tomb was the venerable patriarch of the west, the
great apostle of temperance, the patriot whom his fellow-
citizens loved to honor, without distinction of race or
religion, the lion of the fold of Judah. I refer to John
Ireland, Archbishop of St. PauL"
On March 3 following, sixteen Cardinals took part in
the celebration of Gibbons' jubilee in his titular Church
of Santa Maria in Trestevere, Rome, when Cardinal
Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, celebrated Pontifical
High Mass.
CHAPTER XLII
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS
Cardinal Gibbons' code of civic duty, like most of his
other fundamental conceptions, was the essence of sim-
plicity. First, he thought it not unworthy to cherish
among the most important privileges with which he was
endowed the rights of American citizenship; second, he
held that cherishing the value of those rights implied the
direct duty of making full use of them ; third, he seemed
to be incapable of thinking in terms of class. His con-
cern was always for the greatest good to the greatest
number, which he regarded as the basis upon which the
citizen should cast his vote, without heading the call of
selfish interest. He was never known to ask, in public
or private, for any favor to the Catholic Church, but he
was ready to claim for her at all times the same full pro-
tection of American laws which he freely conceded to
other religious organizations. There was nothing in the
general basis of this program which any citizen might not
emulate.
His participation in public affairs was a by-product,
just as it must be in the case of the great majority in every
democracy. It would have been easy for him to escape all
unofficial civic responsibility — the only kind which it
was possible for him to exercise — without any adverse
comment upon his abstention. He might have shared in
761
762 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the aloofness of some moralists who seek to avoid "soil-
ing their hands" with such things. He could have fallen
in with the custom of many churchmen of all creeds who
ignore the civic relation to a great extent, because in their
view it is not a part of their spiritual mission, and be-
cause they fear that their motives may be misunderstood.
His engrossing preoccupation with other affairs would
have been as ready a reason for non-participation in the
duties of the citizen by himself as in the cases of mer-
chants, lawyers and others who profess to have no time
for engaging in what they call politics.
It was not in the nature of Gibbons, however, to be in
the world and not of it, in the sense of striving for the
betterment of the world. The institutions of his country
seemed to him not to be merely a material structure pro-
viding for material needs. In his view they were a mani-
festation of the workings of Divine Providence for the
welfare of men. He considered America to be a provi-
dential nation, raised to diffuse liberty not only for itself,
but as an example to the world. He could not spare any
effort which he felt might help to keep it true to that
mission.
He considered that one of his chief duties every year
was to cast his vote, and only sheer physical inability
could prevent him from doing so. He never failed to
register on the poll books.
Yet, simple as this creed was, so sublimely did he carry
it out that Americans came to regard him as their fore-
most citizen outside the circle of high official life and
heeded his voice as perhaps the voice of no one since
Washington. The quality of his citizenship became a
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 763
national model. It was unquestioned that he was not
swayed by partisanship, and that expediency could not
affect his course in public affairs. In times when popular
opinion was distracted by the selfish clashes of political
leaders his calm counsel was eagerly looked for. Whether
he happened to be on the winning side of a question (as
in regard to his warnings against Socialism and Bolshe-
vism) or on the losing side (as when he opposed the
woman suffrage and prohibition amendments) seemed to
be of less concern to the mass of his fellow-citizens, than
the evident fact that he had the courage to express his
views fearlessly and without rancor whenever it seemed
to him to be necessary to do so. The sanity of his politi-
cal thinking seemed to be unfailing. He was the spokes-
man of the voiceless multitude.
On one occasion he said :
"Nobody knows my politics. I have more regard for
principles than for men, but, of course, when I vote I
must vote for some man. I never told any man for whom
I would vote in any election. I hold myself independent
and free to vote each time as it seems best, according to
my knowledge and conscience." ^
In a letter to his long-time friend, Ex-Senator Henry
G. Davis, of West Virginia,^ soon after the latter's nom-
ination as the Democratic party's candidate for Vice-
President, he wrote:
* Interview in the New York IVorld, August 6, 1912.
* Cardinal Gibbons had met Mr. Davis often at Deer Park, Md., a re-
sort in the Allegheny Mountains, where he used to go for periods of
rest before his elevation to the Cardinalate and at intervals for a few
years afterward. On one ocasion he dined with Mr. Davis when Presi-
dent Harrison was a guest at the same table. (Pepper, The Life and
Times of Henry Gassaway Davis.)
764 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Baltimore, August 31, 1904.
"Honorable Henry G. Davis.
"My DEAR Senator:
". . . My first impulse, on reading of your nomination
to the Vice-Presidency, was to congratulate you on the
honor conferred on you by your fellow-citizens. But I
hesitated to write, fearing that my letter might be con-
strued as espousing publicly a political party.
"The delicate position in which I feel I am placed has
always debarred me from giving public expression to my
political views.
"Whatever may be the outcome of the campaign, your
friends, among whom I claim to be one, will rejoice in
the well-merited distinction conferred on you. . . .
"Faithfully yours in Christ,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."
Naturally many persons sought to obtain his public
support of the candidacies of individuals, or to learn,
from motives of curiosity, whom he would favor. One
of these persons asked him, when the Presidential cam-
paign of 1912 was in the period of its greatest intensity:
"Have you a favorite candidate*?"
"I have," replied Gibbons.
"And may I ask who it is?"
"You may," the Cardinal answered.
A glance of keen expectancy was directed at him, and
the visitor was about to ask the name of the candidate
on whose side he was when the twinkle in his blue eyes
became more evident. He checked the discussion at that
point by adding:
"You may ask me, but not on any account will I tell
you. I did not say that I would tell you, if you will re-
member; I said only that you might ask."
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 7C5
In that year he was invited to offer the invocation at
the opening of the Democratic National Convention in
Baltimore which nominated Woodrow Wilson for Presi-
dent. His prayer upon that occasion was:
"We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom and justice,
through Whom authority is rightly administered, laws
are enacted and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy
Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these
United States, that his administration may be conducted
in righteousness and be eminently useful to Thy people
over whom he presides, by encouraging due respect for
virtue and religion, by a faithful execution of the laws
of justice and mercy and by restraining vice and immo-
rality.
"Let the light of Thy Divine Wisdom direct the delib-
erations of this convention and shine forth in all its pro-
ceedings and enactments so that they may tend to the
preservation of peace and good will and the promotion
of concord and harmony.
"May authority be exercised without despotism, and
liberty prevail without license. May this convention
demonstrate once more to the American people and to
the world at large that the citizens of the United States
have solved the problem of self-government by exercising
and tolerating the broadest and most untrammeled free-
dom of discussion in their political assemblies, without
dethroning reason and without invading the sacred and
inviolable domain of law and of public order.
"May the delegates assembled to select a candidate for
Chief Magistrate be ever mindful that they are the sons
of the same Heavenly Father, that they are brothers of
the same national family, that they are fellow-citizens of
the same glorious republic, that they are joint heirs of the
same heritage of freedom, and may it be their highest
766 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ambition to transmit this precious inheritance unimpaired
to their children and their children's children.
"May the consciousness of this community of interests
and of destiny banish from their hearts all bitterness,
hatred and ill will, and inspire them with sentiments of
genuine charity, benevolence and mutual respect and
forbearance.
"We commend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy all
our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout the United
States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and
sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that
they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which
the world cannot give, and after enjoying the blessings
of this life that they may be admitted to those which are
eternal."
At the session of the convention at which this prayer
was delivered, Gibbons sat directly in front of William
J. Bryan, who leaned over in his seat and introduced him-
self to the Cardinal. They afterward became well ac-
quainted. Bryan made the principal speech at that ses-
sion, and his oratorical delivery was a subject of especial
interest to Gibbons.
When it was announced that the Cardinal would offer
the prayer on that occasion, a letter, supposed to have
been written by an unbalanced man, was sent to him,
intimating that he might be shot if he persisted in his
decision to offer the prayer. Needless to say, he was
unmoved by it.
In a sermon at the Baltimore Cathedral on November
4 of the same year, two days before the election, he reaf-
firmed his belief in the stability of the Republic and the
adequacy of the Constitution. He pointed out that it
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 767
was customary for gloomy persons to indulge in forecasts
of evil before elections, which were not borne out by sub-
sequent developments. In the American system of sep-
aration of the executive, legislative and judicial powers,
he saw a marked influence on the side of safety. His
main concern was regarding a possible lack of interest on
the part of voters. He said :
"It is my profound conviction that if ever the republic
is doomed to decay, if the future historian shall ever
record the decline and fall of the American republic, its
downfall will be due, not to a hostile invasion, but to
the indifference, lethargy and political apostasy of her
own sons.
"And if all citizens are bound to take an interest in
public affairs, that duty especially devolves on those who
are endowed with superior intelligence and education, and
who ought to be the leaders and exemplars of the people,
guiding them in the path of political rectitude.
"There are three conspicuous citizens who are now
candidates for the Presidency. Whatever may be my
private and personal preference and predilection, it is not
for me in this sacred pulpit or anywhere else publicly to
dictate or even suggest to you the candidate of my choice.
"May God so enlighten the minds and quicken the con-
science, of the American people to a sense of their civic
duties as to arouse in them an earnest and practical inter-
est in the coming election, and may He so guide their
hearts that they will select a Chief Magistrate whose ad-
ministration will redound to the material prosperity and
moral welfare of our beloved republic."
He also offered the opening prayer at the beginning of
the third day's session of the Republican National Con-
vention at Chicago in 1920, which nominated Harding
768 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
for President. The first part of the prayer upon that
occasion was almost the same as the opening paragraph
of the one delivered at Baltimore eight years before. It
continued :
"May Thy people always realize the truth of the in-
spired maxim that 'Righteousness exalteth a nation but
sin maketh a people miserable.' May they realize and
take to heart that if our nation is to be perpetuated in the
exercise of authority with liberty, our Government must
rest, not on formidable standing armies, not on dread-
naughts, for the 'race is not to the swift nor the battle to
the strong.'
"Grant, O Lord, that the administration of the new
Chief Magistrate may redound to the spiritual and mate-
rial welfare of the Commonwealth, to the suppression of
sedition and anarchy; and to the strength and perpetuity
of our civil and political institutions.
"I have been, O Lord, in my day, a personal and living
witness of the many tremendous upheavals which threat-
ened to rend the nation asunder, from the inauguration
of thy servant, Abraham Lincoln, even unto this day.
But Thou hast saved us in the past by Thy almighty
power and I have abiding confidence that Thou wilt deal
graciously with us in every future emergency.
"Grant that the proceedings of the convention may be
marked by a wisdom, discretion, concord, harmony and
mutual forbearance worthy of an enlightened and patri-
otic body of American citizens."
One of the public questions on which Gibbons took a
pronounced stand in his later years was the retention of
American sovereignty over the Philippines. In 1913,
soon after Mr. Wilson's first term as President began, a
bill which provided for Philippine independence was
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 769
strongly backed in Congress, and, for a time, seemed
likely to pass. Gibbons had taken no public part in the
discussion in 1898 as to whether the Philippines should
be transferred from Spanish to American sovereignty, al-
though, as we have seen, when President McKinley
asked for his advice on that subject, he said that the
transfer would be a good thing for the Catholic Church,
but a bad one, he feared, for the United States. We
have also seen how it was chiefly due to Gibbons that the
vexing question of the Friar lands was settled and the
status of the Catholic Church property in the Philippines
and other islands acquired by the United States from
Spain arranged to accord with American methods.
Once the islands were taken over, he was firmly of the
opinion that they should be held until their people were
fitted for self-government, and he was disposed to require
distinct evidence to be given of such fitness before
American supervision was withdrawn. In his view,
American withdrawal would mean abandoning a helpless
people to a capricious and ominous future.
On November 3, 1912, Gibbons was the guest of Presi-
dent Taft, at luncheon, when they discussed the question
of the Philippines. Mr. Taft pointed out to him that
while all the Democratic platforms since that of 1900
had declared for the independence of the islands, Mr.
Wilson had not mentioned that subject in his speech ac-
cepting nomination. The President, who had been the
first civil governor of the islands, and in whose judgment
regarding them Gibbons reposed profound confidence,
said that the Philippines were far from ready for inde-
pendence, and that, if it were given to them, an oligarchy
770 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of natives would control. He also expressed the view
that in certain eventualities a foreign power might seize
the islands.
Gibbons told the President that the Catholic Bishops
in the Philippines were unanimously of the opinion that
the people were not ready for independence. He con-
curred in this view, believing that a considerable period
of further progress under the American flag was necessary
before the question of full independence could be seri-
ously considered.
After the bill had been introduced, Gibbons became
the foremost influence in opposition to it. He took the
ground that while a small proportion of the people of the
islands were educated and fitted for the duties of citizen-
ship at that time, the great majority were still in a rudi-
mentary state of civilization, and many were almost bar-
barous. Early independence, he held, would lead to re-
peated revolutions and the springing up of ambitious and
unscrupulous leaders, and eventually to anarchy. The
result in that event, he was inclined to believe, would be
that Japan would take possession of the islands.
Speaking to members of the Taft Cabinet, other offi-
cials of the Washington government and representatives
of every nation of Central and South America, assembled
at an official luncheon in Washington, November 29,
1912, Gibbons declared that in the Philippines the
United States had a responsibility which it could not
escape. He remarked:
"Happy for the United States, and thrice happy for
the Philippines if the administration of affairs in the
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 771
islands in the future shall be in hands as capable as those
of President Taft."
The editor of a Boston newspaper ^ having solicited
from him a full expression of his views on the subject
of the Philippines, he consented to give the interview,
which was subsequently republished as a Congressional
document on motion of Representative Kendall of Iowa,
who, in proposing its publication, said : *
"Mr. Speaker, Cardinal Gibbons is not only a very
distinguished prelate, but he is a very eminent statesman
as well. He has had occasion to devote very deep and
discriminating study to the subject of our relations to the
Philippines, a proposition which will be one of difficulty
and importance in Congress. Some time ago he submitted
to an interview which is a contribution of peculiar value,
in my opinion, to the American people. I ask unanimous
consent to extend my remarks by including it in the
Record."
In that statement Gibbons urged that the Philippine
problem was in no sense a partisan one, but belonged to
the whole American people. He said:
"To its solution the best thought of the country should
be devoted, and the efforts of our Government in that
direction deserve the loyal support of all Americans with-
out regard to creed, religious or political. The orderly
progress and development of the Filipinos and their edu-
cation in the difficult science of self-government under
the wise and benevolent policy pursued by this nation
since the American occupation is threatened by the pro-
posal to commit the Government to abandon those islands
* The Transcript.
* Congressional Record.
772 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
at a fixed time in the future — and that only a few years
away.
"I am irrevocably opposed to any proposal that would
commit this nation to a scuttle policy in the Philippine
Islands — to-day, to-morrow, or at any fixed time in the
future — and I say this wholly in the interest of the social,
material, and moral advancement of the people of the
United States, of whom I am proud to be a fellow citizen,
no less than of the Filipinos themselves.
"In the first place, I maintain that the Filipinos — the
vast majority of them, at any rate — have never been con-
sulted regarding their independence. The islands com-
posing the archipelago number more than 3,000 and are
widely scattered. The people of one island have little or
no relation with the inhabitants of another. No attempt
has been made to ascertain the views of these segregated
groups upon the question, so vital to them, as to whether
they shall be turned adrift to shift for themselves. There
has been no plebiscite, and it would require days and
weeks for them to gather and register their opinions on
the subject.
"But even could it be demonstrated that a large num-
ber of Filipinos desired independence, in my judgment
the inhabitants of those islands, as a whole, are utterly
unprepared to shoulder the responsibility which inde-
pendence would place upon them. Some authorities give
the number of those capable of reading and writing as
not more than 5 per cent, nor have more than 3 per cent
an adequate idea of the duties required of those charged
with self-government.
"Objection is raised against our continuing to rule a
people 8,000 miles away. In answer I would say that
when we acquired California in 1847 President Polk is
said to have remarked that a territory so far removed
from what was then the United States would be a doubt-
ful possession. We know now how fallacious was his
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 773
reasoning. Although the Philippine Islands are so far
removed from us geographically, it is easier for us to-day
to reach Manila than it was sixty years ago to go from
New York to San Francisco, and, in fact, it might be said
that we are in hourly communication with the islands by
cable.
"On many sides of us to-day we see republics torn with
chronic revolutions — Liberia, Santo Domingo, Cuba, and
last, but by no means least, Mexico. For those revolu-
tions this nation is not responsible. I hold that it would
be a grave mistake to add another to that group, and one
for which as a nation the United States would be wholly
responsible."
Gibbons was greatly relieved when he learned soon
afterward at a dinner party in Washington that a suffi-
cient number of senators was opposed to the bill for Phil-
ippine independence to prevent its passage. He con-
tinued to receive encouraging reports from Catholic prel-
ates in the islands of the progress being made under
American control. In the year following the defeat of
the bill he was visited by Archbishop Harty, of Manila,
who cheered him by saying that 400,000 children were
then enrolled in the new insular schools.
The period of prolonged revolutions in Mexico, which
followed the end of the Diaz regime, was a source of
great distress to him because of the persecution of priests
and nuns that accompanied it. So deeply was he moved
that he issued two letters, one addressed to the priests,
and the other to the laity of the archdiocese of Baltimore,
asking them to pray daily during the entire month of
May, 1914, for peace in that country. He went to New
Orleans for a conference with Archbishop Mora y del
774. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Rio, the head of the Catholic Church in Mexico, and they
considered steps for the care of the priests and nuns who
were fleeing to the United States to escape the worst bru-
talities, and even death, at the hands of various Mexican
factions. In the following year he issued an appeal to
the American Bishops in behalf of the refugees, saying:
"The Archbishop of Mexico has made known to me
the great misery in which multitudes of Sisters and of
mothers and children now find themselves on account of
the revolution. Their condition is most pitiable, and no
promise of immediate relief is found in Mexico itself.
He implores us to come to their assistance. I communi-
cated hurriedly with their Eminences, Cardinals Farley
and O'Connell, who agree with me that an appeal should
be made to the members of the Hierarchy on behalf of
these sufferers.
"Were the condition less distressing and the act less
exalted, I would not venture to take the step without first
asking your advice as to the wisdom of it. There is, how-
ever, urgent need of immediate action. I ask you, there-
fore, in your charity and kindness of heart to take fitting
steps toward raising funds for this purpose. I may say
that a number of representatives of American public opin-
ion, both in official and private life, who are well ac-
quainted with conditions in Mexico, are most anxious that
this be done."
He was in frequent correspondence with President
Wilson and the State Department regarding the situa-
tion. While opposed to armed intervention, he felt that
the influence of America should be continuously exerted
to allay the atrocities in Mexico which accompanied the
revolution. He pronounced Carranza and Villa "a dis-
grace to their country."
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 775
On November 19, 1914, he sent a letter to Archbishop
Mora, in the name of the entire Hierarchy of the United
States, deploring the hostility to the Catholic Church by
the revolutionists and the persecution of priests and nuns,
saying :
"In the United States, constitutional provisions safe-
guard both the stability of government and the liberties
of the individual, not by hampering religion, but by al-
lowing it the fullest freedom, or rather by protecting it in
the enjoyment of that freedom which it has by right.
"The American people . . . will not, I am sure, de-
liberately assent to the establishment on their borders of
a system of misrule, based on the worst of tyrannies —
the tyranny of the State over soul and conscience."
A little more than a month after this appeal was sent
out, he received a letter from the Archbishop of Oaxaca
saying that Carranza had forbidden confessions and col-
lections in the churches.
He continued to hope steadily that the right man or
men would come to the front in Mexico and restore the
country to the peace and prosperity which it formerly
enjoyed. It was one of the solaces of the closing days
of his life that conditions in that country had become
greatly improved.
Continuing his efforts in behalf of international peace.
Gibbons gave support to every arbitration treaty which
was negotiated by the Washington government. In an
address at the Third National Peace Congress held in
Baltimore in May, 1911, he made an earnest plea for a
treaty of that kind between the United States and Great
Britain as a forerunner of similar conventions binding all
776 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
nations. The president of the Congress, in introducing
him, characterized him as one of the most potent forces
in the world for the abolition of war, and recalled the
appeal issued by Cardinals Gibbons, Logue and Vaughan
at Easter, 1896, as one of the chief contributory causes
of the Hague Conference of 1899.
Gibbons lent the full weight of his influence to the
overthrow of the Louisiana lottery, a gigantic scheme of
licensed gambling which had long been an offense to the
nation. Its power, derived from the laws of the State in
which it was conducted, was fortified by organized cor-
ruption and for a time seemed impregnable. Able and
devoted men undertook to crush it, but for years their
efforts were futile. It appeased hostile opinion by giving
large donations to charities, and obtained the services of
Generals Beauregard and Early to supervise its drawings.
By a letter addressed January 11, 1892, to General
George D. Johnston, of the Anti-Lottery Committee
which was opposing a renewal of the charter by the State
of Louisiana, Gibbons helped to turn the tide. He took
the ground that the question of permitting the lottery to
continue was preeminently one of morality and virtue.
The practical working of the lottery, he showed, tended
to enrich the few at the expense and misery of the many;
to tempt the poor to squander their earnings "in the vain,
delusive Tantalus-like hope of one day becoming the pos-
sessor of a winning number." This fever impelled many
to thefts and other forms of dishonesty. He pronounced
the lottery to be an enemy to the honor and peace of any
community, to the happiness of the home, to individual
thrift and enterprise, and vigorously called upon every
MANIFOLD PUBLIC RELATIONS 777
public-spirited and earnest Christian to aid in its sup-
pression. The Cardinal wrote:
"Christian charity and natural philanthropy alike dic-
tate that we remove from the unwary pitfalls of destruc-
tion and withdraw the innocent and weak from tempta-
tion. Those bent on suicide should be restrained. The
burning fagot should be snatched from the child's hand.
That the Louisiana lottery, as it is presented to us, proves
a snare and a delusion to thousands, and is destructive
to the peace of mind and energy of action so necessary to
pursue honorable careers and properly to acquit one's
self of life's duties, we can not doubt. The daily opera-
tions of the scheme make the point clear. Worthy, then,
of praise and commendation are they who strive to
quicken the public conscience and to array public senti-
ment against the continuance of the evil, who speak and
labor in behalf of their fellow-men by seeking to remove
from their midst a dire enemy of their manhood, their
homes and their prosperity.
"Were the evil confined only to the State of Louisiana,
I should refrain from giving expression to my sentiments;
but since, like a giant tree, it has extended its branches
over the entire land, embracing in the area of its opera-
tions Maryland and the District of Columbia, with which
I am connected, I could not but raise my voice in pro-
test, and in particular that our faithful people may help
forward the good work of putting an end to its ravages."
The words of Gibbons were influential not only in the
country at large, but directly in Louisiana, the home of
his youth and where his family resided. He was vener-
ated there as much as in Baltimore; and an aroused pub-
lic opinion was sufficient to crush the lottery out of ex-
istence.
778 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Throughout the nation there was a chorus of satisfac-
tion that a contest so long and unceasingly waged had
become victorious. The Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, preach-
ing in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in the following
month, expressed the view of Protestant crusaders who,
like himself, had long been grappling with the monster.
He exclaimed:
"I can not understand the folly of men who would blot
out the Roman Catholic Church from this country. Thank
God for Cardinal Gibbons I Long may he wear his red
cloak and his red cap ; and if there should be an election
now, and you and I could vote, I would vote to make him
Pope I His word, flung out with courage and with strong
significance, has done more than any other word in this
country, by press, by politician, or by preacher, to make
the leaders of that Louisiana abomination call a halt, and,
at least, pretend a retreat. God give us courage to turn
it into a rout."
When the lottery took refuge in Honduras and illicitly
carried on its operations in the United States, though in
a much modified form, the Cardinal wrote another letter
severely condemning it and expressing the hope that pub-
lic opinion would stamp it out everywhere.
CHAPTER XLIII
PROHIBITION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE
The quality of Gibbons' moral courage was perhaps
shown by nothing more strikingly than by his attitude on
temperance and prohibition as to the use of liquor. Any
consideration of his record on that question must begin
with the fact that he was one of the most powerful in-
dividual forces for temperance. Over a very long period
of years he made it a practise whenever he confirmed a
class to request the boys to pledge abstinence from intoxi-
cating liquors until they reached the age of twenty-one
years. The aggregate of those who gave these pledges
was many thousands. It was Gibbons' belief, based upon
observation, that habits of intemperance were usually
contracted in youth, when there were exceptional tempta-
tions, and that if this period could be passed safely there
was less danger of drinking to excess.
Total prohibition of the sale of liquor by law in the
nation or a State he regarded as impracticable and dan-
gerous, but he was in favor of local option on the ques-
tion. He declared publicly "that it is impossible to leg-
islate men into morality." When the question of ratify-
ing the prohibition amendment to the national Constitu-
tion hung in the balance, he expressed the hope that the
members of State legislatures who were still to vote upon
the question would not bow to "the fanaticism that seems
779
780 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to be governing us in this respect." Some of the law-
makers seemed to him to be acting through cowardice,
dreading the pressure exercised by propagandists for pro-
hibition. Ratification of the amendment, he predicted,
would be followed by the springing up of illicit stills in
all parts of the country, and dangerous beverages made
surreptitiously would be used in the place of beer and
light wines. He added:
"Those favoring the amendment will not be satisfied
with this victory, and they will try to impose other ob-
noxious laws upon us that will make our personal liberty
worth very little."
He expressed repeatedly the conviction that prohibi-
tion could never be enforced, and that if enforcement
should be attempted, it would make hypocrites and vio-
lators of the laws.
Declaring his opposition in 1916 to a State prohibition
bill, then under consideration by the legislature of Mary-
land, he said to a delegation which called upon him :
"I believe that such a law is impossible of enforcement
in a city of the size of Baltimore. A law of this kind
interferes with personal liberty and rights, and creates
hypocrisy in the people. The history of the world down
to the present time demonstrates the fact that people
always have indulged and always will indulge in the use
of intoxicating liquors.
"It is true that the use of wines and liquors is often
abused, as I know from a long observation in the minis-
try, yet the best of things are liable to abuse. What is
more harmless, for instance, than the organ of the tongue'?
We all know the social and domestic joy and utility de-
rived from conversation, and yet the bad use of the tongue
PROHIBITION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE 781
daily leads to lying and misrepresentation, to quarrels
and slander, to bloodshed, and often even to murder.
"It is a favorite practise of some friends of prohibition
to charge their opponents with being subsidized by the
liquor interests ; that is a most grievous charge, and often
unfounded. But would we be justified in putting a pad-
lock on our mouths because of the occasional misuse of
the tongue? We should regulate the use of intoxicants
as we regulate the use of our tongues, by proper safe-
guards and restraints.
"What I would recommend for Baltimore is high li-
cense, and laws connected with it rigidly enforcing the
regulations for the conduct of saloons."
He lent his direct support to abolishing the saloons by
means of local option in Charles County, Maryland,
where the Catholic population was large. A statement
which he issued while the question was being agitated
there resulted in a large majority in the county against
the continued sale of liquor. The statement was :
"I believe that the right of the people to determine by
the operation of a local option law whether saloons shall
or shall not be closed within their respective communities
is in harmony with the American principle of self gov-
ernment and I congratulate the people of Charles county
in that they will have the right to settle this question by
ballot on May 16 next. Realizing the damage which has
been done by the liquor traffic in this county, I sincerely
trust that at the coming election they will banish forever
the licensed saloon, as I believe that it will be to the best
interests of their people."
Gibbons supported steps which were taken for instruct-
ing children in the schools regarding the effects of alcohol
on bodily health and he encouraged the offering of prizes
782 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
for essays on that subject written by pupils in Baltimore.
He resisted all temptations — and they were great —
to make uncharitable rejoinders to the attacks which were
launched against him by some of the extreme advocates
of prohibition. One of these attacks was in the form
of an insinuation that he opposed the national prohibi-
tion amendment because the Maryland distilleries were
"controlled or owned by Catholics." This was far from
the mark, for an inquiry which was instituted showed
that only five of the twenty distilleries in the State were
so controlled or owned. In a letter to a friend, in the
course of which he mentioned the refutation of this
charge, he wrote simply:
"We must make ourselves heard touching our personal
liberty." ^
On the question of woman suffrage, as in regard to
prohibition, he held to his own position despite pro-
longed and determined pressure to induce him to change
it. He was opposed to general suffrage for women, but
in favor of conferring municipal suffrage upon women
who owned property. He based his stand upon the view
that activity by women in politics would involve the risk
of injury to their influence in the home. Speaking to
members of the Catholic Women's Benevolent Legion ^
he said:
"You are the queens of the domestic kingdom. Do not
stain your garments with the soil of the political arena.
No man or woman can rule well over two kingdoms, and
one should be enough for you. You rule the home, the
* Letter of January 29, 1919.
*May 20, 1920.
PROHIBITION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE 783
husband and the children, and should not attempt to
dabble in politics. . . . Each of you has a special mis-
sion from God, and each must perform it individually.
. . . Women are greater than men, more than priests,
more than Bishops, in the power to develop the highest
ideals as mothers, daughters and sisters."
He uniformly insisted that the Christian home was the
cornerstone of the nation, and in numerous addresses ex-
alted the Christian mother. In a sermon at the Baltimore
Cathedral February 4, 1900, he said:
"I regard 'woman's rights' women as the worst enemies
of the female sex. They rob woman of all that is amiable
and gentle, tender and attractive; they rob her of her
innate grace of character, and give her nothing in return
but masculine boldness and brazen effrontery. They are
habitually preaching about woman's rights and preroga^
tives, and have not a word to say about her duties and
responsibilities. They withdraw her from those obliga-
tions which properly belong to her sex and fill her with
ambition to usurp positions for which neither God nor
nature ever intended her.
"Under the influence of such teachers, we find woman,
especially in higher circles, neglecting her household
duties, never at peace unless she is in perpetual motion
or unless she is in a state of morbid excitement. She
never feels at home unless she is abroad. When she is at
home, the home is irksome to her. She chafes and frets
under the restraints and responsibilities of domestic life.
Her heart is abroad; it is exulting in imagination in some
social triumph or reveling in some scene of gayety and
dissipation.
"Her afflicted husband comes home to find it empty
or occupied by a woman whose heart is empty of affection
for him. She is ill at ease. Hence arise disputes, quar-
784. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
rels, recriminations, estrangements, or the last act of the
drama is often divorce I I speak with sober truth when I
affirm that for the wrecks of families in our country
woman has a large share of the responsibility.
"Where will woman find the charter of her rights and
dignity? In the Gospel. The Catholic Church, follow-
ing the teachings of the Gospel and the Epistles of St.
Paul, proclaims woman as the peer of man.
"Christian women, when your husbands and sons re-
turn to you in the evening after buffeting with the waves
of the world, let them find in your homes a haven of rest.
Do not pour into the bleeding wounds of the heart the
gall of bitter words, but rather the oil of gladness and
consolation."
Delegations of woman suifragists made numerous ef-
forts to win him over to their side, but without avail. A
number of them who engaged in a march from New
York to Washington in February, 1913, as a means of
attracting attention to their cause, contrived to obtain
an audience with him by appearing at his residence in one
of his daily periods for public reception and entering
without formality. Gibbons received them as he received
other callers, with winning cordiality, and they could
pluck up courage to do nothing more spectacular in the
course of their visit than to present an equal suffrage
flag to him.
He feared that if the mass of women participated
actively in politics there would be an aggravation of what
he considered to be one of the greatest evils in America —
divorce. In sermons and public addresses he frequently
warned of the increasing number of divorces, with the
tendency to undermine family life. Writing in the
PROHIBITION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE T85
Delineator^ a journal for women, in July, 1907, he ex-
pressed himself thus:
"The reckless facility with which divorce is procured in
this country is an evil scarcely less deplorable than Mor-
monism. Indeed, it is in some respects more dangerousj
for divorce has the sanction of the civil law, which Mor-
monism has not. Is not the law of divorce a virtual tol-
eration of Mormonism in a modified form? Mormonism
consists in a simultaneous polygamy, while the law of
divorce practically leads to successive polygamy. . . .
It is plainly manifest that the cancer of divorce is rapidly
spreading over the community and poisoning the foun-
tains of the nation. Unless the evil is checked by some
speedy and heroic remedy, the existence of family life is
imperiled."
In a letter addressed to the "Congress of Mothers" in
Washington, May 1, 1911, the Cardinal expressed his
general views of the duties of women in the world. He
wrote :
"The home is the primeval school. It is the best, the
most hallowed and the most potential of all academies,
and the parent, especially the mother, is the first, the
most influential and the most cherished of all teachers.
"For various reasons mothers should be the first instruc-
tors of their children.
''First — As nature ordains that mothers should be th€
first to feed their offspring with corporal nourishment of
their own substance, so the God of nature ordains that
mothers should be the first to impart to their little ones
'the rational, guileless milk of heavenly knowledge,
whereby they may grow into salvation' (i Peter 11. i).
''Second — The children that are fed by their own
mothers are usually more healthy and robust than those
786 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
that are nourished by wet nurses. In like manner, the
children that are instructed by their own mothers in the
elements of Christian knowledge are commonly more
sturdy in faith and are more responsive to the call of
moral duty than those who are committed for instruc-
tion to strangers.
''Third — The progress of a pupil in knowledge is in a
great measure proportioned to the confidence he has in
his preceptor. Now, in whom does a child place so much
belief as in his mother*? She is his oracle and prophet.
She is his guide, philosopher and friend. He never
doubts what his mother tells him. The lesson he receives
acquires additional force because it proceeds from one to
whom he has given his first love, and whose image in after
life is indelibly stamped on his heart or memory.
Mothers, do not lose the golden opportunity you have of
training your children in point of morals while their
hearts are open to drink in your every word.
''Fourth — You share the same home with your children.
You frequently occupy the same apartment. You eat
at the same table with them. They are habitually before
your eyes. You are, therefore, the best fitted to instruct
them and you can avail yourself of every little incident
that presents itself and draw from it some appropriate
moral reflection."
He denounced the laxity of the laws in some of the
western States which permitted "divorce colonies" to
spring up there, saying:
"The ease with which divorces may be obtained in some
of our States is nothing less than criminal. One of the
favorite grounds in these days is what is called 'incom-
patibility of temper.' A wife may burn a pan of biscuits.
The husband chides her. Miserable little biting words
fly from their tongues. There is never a thought of for-
PROHIBITION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE 78T
bearance on the part of either. There is never a thought
of the children. Only the selfish pride of the parents is
considered, and presently there is an action brought for
divorce. Incompatibility of temper! Bah!, I say to the
laws which permit such things. They affront God and
every one who fears Him."
His sympathy went out warmly to the children of
divorcees. In a sermon he said :
"I can conceive no scene more pathetic, nor one that
appeals more touchingly to our sympathies than the con-
templation of a child emerging into the years of discre-
tion seeing her father and mother estranged from each
other. Her little heart is yearning to love. She longs to
embrace both her parents; but she finds that she cannot
give her affection to the one without exciting the resent-
ment or displeasure of the other." ^
Gibbons' voice was raised earnestly against "race sui-
cide," to which attention was vigorously called by Mr.
Roosevelt while serving as President. The Cardinal con-
sidered this to be a certain sign of national decay unless
it were arrested. In a letter to the Baltimore Sun^ Oc-
tober 18, 1907, he wrote:
"Marriage, according to the Christian dispensation, is
not intended for self-indulgence, but for the rearing of
children in the knowledge and fear of God, who will
fulfill their every obligation as individuals and as mem-
bers of the social body, and prepare themselves for the
eternal society of their Divine Master and His faithful
servants. Its duties, properly fulfilled, develop in the
highest degree self-denying, unfailing, courageous devot-
edness in the individual ; and, consequently, in the f am-
* Discourses and Sermons, pp. 523-524.
783 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ily, the strong and tender bonds that hold its members in
undying fidelity and love. . . .
"It is a great mistake to suppose that the two or three
children of the small family, who receive all the advan-
tages and all the indulgences that their parents can be-
stow, are going to become the best men and women.
There is a discipline and a training in the large family,
where the feelings and rights of others have constantly
to be reckoned with, which is much more effective in pre-
paring the right sort of men and women to meet the con-
ditions of real life. Those thus reared will not so easily
be found among the hordes of lazy, self-centered do-
nothings, who are of no good to church, or to society, or to
themselves.
"The race has not improved, but has suffered disaster
in both nations and communities, where the procreation
of children has not been looked upon as a matter far too
sacred and momentous to be left to the control of in-
dividual appreciation of its manifold and perplexing
problems. The accidentally occurring case of excep-
tional hardship for the mother, where physical health is
gravely compromised, has been made far too much of.
All important general laws bear hard at times upon the
individual."
After the woman suffrage amendment was adopted.
Gibbons called it a "plunge into the deep," but he pub-
licly recommended that all women, in compliance with its
spirit, should register and vote. He went so far as to urge
Sisters of the orders in the Church to vote, saying that it
was a duty which belonged to them in common with all
other members of their sex.
CHAPTER XLIV
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN
Gibbons contributed to the cordiality of relations be-
tween the United States and the States of Latin America
by instituting in Washington an annual Pan-American
Thanksgiving celebration in the form of a Mass, which
was usually attended by a number of members of the
Cabinet and almost the entire diplomatic corps from the
republics of the Western hemisphere. Presidents were
accustomed to be present at this Mass at least once and
sometimes oftener in the course of their terms of office.
The service was held at St. Patrick's Church, and after it
there was a luncheon in the rectory, at which speeches
were made tending to conserve the concord among the
countries represented.
On these occasions, Gibbons usually spoke, edifying
his hearers with discourses which brought home to them
the responsibility which the diplomatic representatives of
States bore in promoting international friendship and the
adjustment of disputes by peaceful means. In his ad-
dress at the luncheon following the Thanksgiving Mass
in 1913, he emphasized the fact that the annual celebra-
tion was not a form of participation by the Church in
affairs of state. He said :
"Critics have taken exception to this celebration on
account of its quasi-official nature, expressing the belief
789
790 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
that we aim at union of Church and State. An old
Scotchman said to another: 'Sandy, Sandy, honesty is
the best policy. I know, because I've tried both.' The
Church has tried both union of Church and State and the
independent cooperation of Church and State, and she
knows the results of both."
The last President of the United States with whom he
came in contact while in office was Wilson. When Hard-
ing was inaugurated he was near the last stages of his
fatal illness, but he planned a visit to the new President
at the White House as one of the first things which he
would undertake in the event of his recovery. He had
become acquainted with Harding while the latter was
a United States Senator from Ohio, but Wilson had been
in public life for only a comparatively short period previ-
ous to 1912 and Gibbons had not known him personally.
On October 17 of that year, when it appeared that
Wilson's election to the Presidency was certain, the Car-
dinal took occasion to compliment Mrs. Wilson by a
personal call upon her while she was on a visit to Balti-
more. She was the guest of Mrs. William M. Ellicott, a
non-Catholic who was active in social-service work, in
some of whose charitable undertakings the Cardinal had
cooperated actively. Mrs. Ellicott invited him to meet
Mrs. Wilson, and he accepted the invitation with pleas-
ure, engaging in a cordial conversation with the wife of
the future President.
His first visit to Wilson was on April 8, 1913, a little
more than a month after the inauguration. The President
had just returned to the White House after delivering
in person his first message to Congress. When salutations
W CI
O
S
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 791
had been exchanged, Gibbons remarked that he had never
seen Wilson before. The President quickly replied: 'T
have seen you," explaining that he referred to the time
when he had been a student at the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity and had observed with something of a sense of
distant awe the figure of the Archbishop in the latter's
daily walks about the streets of Baltimore.
On the occasion of this visit, Gibbons entered into no
intimate discussion of public affairs with Wilson, intend-
ing merely to convey his respects, for he wished all of the
Presidents to have personal evidence of the loyalty to
the constituted authorities of his country which lay so
close to his heart. What that loyalty meant, Wilson
had abundant and intimate reason to know later v^hen,
during the ordeal of the World War, Gibbons was one
of the strongest influences in bringing out the full na-
tional support of the administration which was essential
to success.
Among Gibbons' numerous friends in public life was
Admiral Dewey, the victor of Manila. When President
McKinley presented to Dewey, October 3, 1899, a sword
which had been voted to him by Congress, the Cardinal
pronounced the benediction at the close of the ceremony.
One of the most thorough of the many replies which
the Cardinal made to the charge brought by some against
Catholics that their religious faith was incompatible with
loyalty to American institutions was in an article con-
tributed by him to the North American Review. In this
he said that Catholics in the United States had "undis-
turbed belief in the perfect harmony existing between
their religion and their duties as American citzens. It
792 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
never occurs to their minds to question the truth of a
belief which all their experience confirms. Love of re-*
ligion and love of country are bound together in their
hearts."
He stated with complete frankness in the article even
the most odious of the charges brought against Catholic
loyalty and replied to them. As to the Pope and political
affairs in the United States, he wrote:
"But an objection is repeatedly cast up to Catholics
which, repugnant though it is to my inmost feelings of
loyalty and reverence towards the Holy Father, I must
take into consideration; for utterly impracticable and ab-
surd as it is in our eyes, it seems to haunt the minds of
many outside the Church. Suppose, it is said, the Pope
were to issue commands in purely civil matters, should
not Catholics be bound to yield him obedience'?
"The Pope will take no such act, we know, even though
it is a part of Catholic faith that he is infallible in the
exercise of his authority; but were he to do so he would
stand self-condemned, a transgressor of the law he him-
self promulgates. He would be offending not only
against civil society, but against God, and violating an
authority as truly from God as His own. Any Catholic
who clearly recognized this, would not be bound to obey
the Pope; or rather his conscience would bind him abso-
lutely to disobey, because with Catholics conscience is the
supreme law which under no circumstances can we ever
lawfully disobey.
"Some controversialists in this country, gravelled for
matter of complaint against the Papal dealings with
America, have invented the fable that Pius IX recognized
the Southern Confederacy. Of course the facts refute
them, as the Pope merely extended to Mr. Jefferson Davis
the courtesy which one gentleman owes another of ad-
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 793
dressing him by his official title. They cling to the serv-
iceable fable; and proceed to shudder at the thought of
what might have happened if, in the crisis of our Civil
War, the President had been a Catholic.
"Let me relieve them by stating what would have oc-
curred. A Catholic President would act, under the cir-
cumstances, precisely as Abraham Lincoln; he would
treat the recognition with a respectful silence, and con-
tinue to prosecute the war to the best of his ability. If
he acted otherwise he would be a traitor to his conscience
and his God, to his country and to the Constitution which
he had sworn to uphold. And he would have Catholic
theological teaching at his back."
At the dedication of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
at St. Louis, April 30, 1903, Gibbons delivered the invo-
cation, imploring the Divine Power that "this vast terri-
tory which was peacefully acquired a hundred years ago
may be, for all time to come, the tranquil and happy
abode of millions of enlightened. God-fearing and
industrious people, engaged in the various pursuits
and avocations of life. As this new domain was added
to our possessions without sanguinary strife, so may its
soil never be stained by bloodshed in any foreign or
domestic warfare. May this commemorative exposi-
tion to which the family of nations are contributing
their treasures of art and industry, bind together the gov-
ernments of the earth in closer ties of fellowship and
goodwill, and of social and commercial intercourse."
On the day before the dedication, the Cardinal pre-
sided at a public debate on questions of theology at the
Catholic University of St. Louis, which is directed by
794 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Jesuit Fathers. President Roosevelt sat beside him
on that occasion.
Almost from the beginning of his labors as a Bishop,
Gibbons was active in missionary efforts in behalf of the
negroes. He wished the Church to put forth the strong-
est influences that would help them in their struggle up-
ward. His vigorous efforts helped to prevent the enact-
ment of a separate coach law applying to railroads in
Maryland, and on another occasion he aided in the de-
feat of a bill requiring the separation of the races on the
street cars of Baltimore.
Negroes appreciated his benevolent interest in them.
This was expressed by a colored city councilman of Bal-
timore, Harry S. Cummings, in a letter addressed to the
Cardinal on his seventy-ninth birthday, from which the
following are extracts:
"Regardless of race, creed or condition, the oppressed
of this land rightly look upon you as their true friend,
and therefore as one whose long life and continued
service are a matter of the deepest concern and of
earnest prayer. You will therefore permit me, as an
humble representative of my race in this city, knowing
as I do their sufferings and their hopes, their heart beats
and their yearnings, their eternal gratitude and devotion
to you regardless of their religious leanings, to congratu-
late you on this the seventy-ninth anniversary of your
birth, and assure you that our sentiment is a reflex of
that of the more than 10,000,000 negroes in this land."
In an article in the North American Review for Octo-
ber, 1905, the Cardinal pronounced lynching "a blot on
our American civilization." He traced the evil to its
WroE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 795
source by pointing out the difficulty and, at times, the
impossibility of securing the prompt trial and punish-
ment of offenders under the criminal laws which pre-
vailed in a number of States. Revision of these laws in
the interest of speedy and effective justice and their im-
partial enforcement he considered a sovereign remedy for
the trouble.
A few years previously he had commented on recent
race troubles in the South as follows:
"In the history of mankind it has been observed that
when two distinct races have coexisted in the same terri-
tory, one race has always exercised a certain supremacy
over the other. While this principle is admitted, it is
the manifest duty of every patriot, statesman and Chris-
tian to see that the relations between the races should be
friendly, harmonious and mutually beneficial. The race
conflicts, antagonism and bloodshed which have recently
occurred in several States of the Union can be largely
traced to two great causes — the one-sided and ill-directed
system of negro education and the consequent abuse of
the ballot-box.
"The colored race is naturally kind and gentle, affec-
tionate and grateful, with religious emotions easily
aroused. But the education which it is generally receiv-
ing is calculated to sharpen its mental faculties at the
expense of its religious and moral sense. It fosters am-
bition without supplying the means of gratifying it. It
feeds the head, while the heart is starved. No education
is complete that does not teach the science of self-re-
straint, and that is found only in the decalogue and the
Gospels.
"The abuse of the ballot-box is chargeable more to
white demagogues than to the blacks themselves. The
politicians use the negro vote for their own selfish pur-
796 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
poses. I am persuaded that a restriction of suffrage by a
property qualification would be a wise measure." ^
So continuous and powerful were Gibbons' efforts in
behalf of both the spiritual and temporal welfare of the
negroes, that Booker T. Washington spoke of him in an
address in Baltimore as "America's foremost champion
of the colored people."
On several occasions Gibbons opposed restricting im-
migration by means of a broad educational requirement.
In June, 1906, he wrote to President Roosevelt that such
a law would turn back much immigration that was de-
sirable.
When the movement was renewed in Congress in 1915,
he sent a letter to a mass meeting in Baltimore held in
opposition to it in which he set forth the reasons for his
stand. He declared that the proposed law "would bar
the ingress of great numbers of desirable prospective
citizens, who, though unable to read or write our
own language, may be fairly well educated in their own,
and, at least, may possess health, strength, virtue, good
sense, business ability and a desire to succeed with high
honor."
He continued:
"If this literacy test had been applied in the seven-
teenth century some of those who came over to Plymouth
on the Mayflower and to Maryland on the Ark and Dove
would have been politely informed that they were unde-
sirable persons and positively requested to return to the
shores whence they came,
"What would this country have amounted to as a
* Baltimore Sun, November 26, 1898.
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 797
nation had its founders immediately after the Revolu-
tion closed its portals to honest but illiterate immigra-
tion? Many of the nation's greatest men in every field of
service were immigrants or the sons of immigrants. We
still cherish the hope that this is 'the land of the free and
the home of the brave,' and the refuge of those honest and
virtuous men and women who conscientiously believe the
land which gave them birth does not give them the rights
or advantages that good men crave to live peacefully and
well."
He protested on several occasions against the persecu-
tion of Jews in Europe. While such persecutions were in
progress in Russia he wrote the following letter :
"Baltimore, December 15, 1890.
"Dear Mr. Hartogensis:
''Every friend of humanity must deplore the system-
atic persecution of the Jews in Russia.
"For my part I cannot well conceive how Christians
can entertain other than kind sentiments toward the He-
brew race when I consider how much we are indebted to
them. We have from them the inspired volume of the
Old Testament, which has been the constitution in all
ages to devout souls; Christ Our Lord, the founder of our
religion; His Blessed Mother, as well as the Apostles.
These facts attach me strongly to the Jewish race. . . .
"I am yours very sincerely,
"J. Cardinal Gibbons."
In another letter he wrote that he did not credit for
an instant the charge that Jews had committed murders in
Russia in order to obtain blood for ritual purposes.
He was opposed to confounding Sunday with the Puri-
tan Sabbath. When a movement for stricter Sunday
observance was started in Baltimore, early in 1900, he
798 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
expressed his views vigorously. "The Christian Sunday,"
he said, "prescribes the golden mean between rigid Sab-
batarianism on the one hand, and lax indulgence on the
other. Rigorously enforced laws would cause a revul-
sion of public feeling and the pendulum would oscillate
to excessive laxity."
Sunday he defined as a day for joy, adding:
"It is a day when we are exhorted to be cheerful with-
out dissipation, grave and religious without sadness or
melancholy. We should remember that the Sabbath was
made for the man, and not man for the Sabbath ; that it
is a day consecrated not only to religion, but also to re-
laxation in mind and body. My idea of the Lord's Day
is expressed in these words of the psalmist : 'This is the
day which the Lord made; let us rejoice and be glad
therein.' "
In a sermon on Sunday observance ^ he gave this illus-
tration :
"A pious Puritan lady was in the habit of locking up
her little boy's hobby-horse, his toys and playthings on
the Lord's Day, and he was required to spend a large part
of the day in religious reading. To encourage her son,
she would say to him : 'My boy, if you are good, Heaven
will be for you a perpetual Sabbath.' But the felicity
which his mother held out to him did not appeal to his
imagination, ambition, or judgment, and when he grew
up he discarded the practise of religion altogether."
With President Roosevelt and John Mitchell, the
labor leader, the Cardinal attended an open air mass
meeting of the United Mine Workers and the Catholic
* Delivered in the Baltimore Cathedral* January 4, 1914.
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 799
Total Abstinence Union at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., August
lo, 1905. More than 100,000 persons were present and
the speeches were intended in part to promote better
relations between labor and capital in the coal mining
region. The Cardinal, addressing the immense crowd,
said :
"The members of society are as closely bound together
as the members of the human body. I care not whether
a man possess the wealth of a Rockefeller, a Vander-
bilt or an Astor, what will his wealth avail him if he has
no friend to grasp his hand"? What would it avail any
man to own all the coal mines in Pennsylvania and West
Virginia if there was no hardy son of toil to dig the
coal and transport it to the centers of commerce *?"
His sympathies were warmly enlisted in the fight
against the ravages of tuberculosis. In October, 1907,
he addressed a letter to the secretary-general of the Inter-
national Congress on Tuberculosis, which was held in
Washington in the following year, expressing the belief
that the disease would ultimately be brought under as
complete control as yellow fever, from which he had
been a sufferer in his youth in New Orleans.
There was no more rigorous critic of faults in American
life than Gibbons — faults in politics, in social conditions
and in business life. In a sermon ^ he condemned ex-
travagance in living and business dishonesty, saying:
"There is another form of dishonest life far more com-
mon and reprehensible ... I refer to the pernicious
habit of living above one's means. In fact, this vice may
be considered as characteristic of Americans. Our coun-
' Discourses and Sermons, pp. 490-491.
800 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
trymen are fond of making money, but they are still
fonder of squandering it. It has been said with truth
that a French or German family can subsist on what is
wasted by an American family.
"One of the causes of this fatal extravagance is the
love of self-indulgence and the ambition of keeping pace
with our neighbor in the race for social distinction. I am
envious of my neighbor when I observe that he keeps a
splendid equipage ; that his house is elegantly furnished ;
that he fares sumptuously; that he entertains lavishly;
that his wife is dressed in the latest fashion, and I am
determined not to be outdone by him. I enter upon a
career of prodigality totally disproportionate to my in-
come. But in a few years I find myself overwhelmed
with debt and on the road to bankruptcy. I have been
burning the candle at both ends. I have been squander-
ing my present income, and have been mortgaging my
future revenue.
"The man who lives beyond his means is not leading
an honest life. My young friends, you who are on the
threshold of a business career, practise a rigid economy.
Live within your income, no matter how modest that in-
come may be.
"Save up something for a rainy day. This is more
easily done than you imagine. Where there is a will
there is a way. The wants of nature are few and are
easily supplied. Sweeter to your palate are bread and
water in a garret, when you are free from debt, than is
a delicious feast to the spendthrift who is tortured by the
spectre of the creditor knocking at his door. While the
insolvent debtor is a slave, you will possess a free and
independent spirit and will enjoy the testimony of a
good conscience."
In an article on "Patriotism and Politics," in the North
American Review for April, 1892, he actively ranged
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 801
himself on the side of those who were trying to stop the
ballot frauds which prevailed in many States. He em-
phasized that when the fountains of legislation were pol-
luted by lobbying and other corrupt means, when the
hand of bribery was extended to municipal, State and
national legislatures, when lawmakers became the pliant
tools of selfish and greedy capitalists, then, indeed, patri-
otic citizens had reason to be alarmed about the future
of the country.
He wrote :
"Let the buyers and sellers of votes be declared in-
famous, for they are trading in our American birthright.
Let them be cast forth from the pale of American citizen-
ship and be treated as outlaws."
He cooperated in curbing the sweatshop evil. After
a careful investigation, he said in a sermon that he had
discovered in Baltimore that sweatshop workers received
"starving wages," and that the result was that in a few
years they became incapacitated. As practical remedies,
he urged agitation of the question and pleas to the hu-
manity of employers themselves. He even advocated
discrimination by purchasers in favor of establishments
which "treat their employees with justice and charity."
The Cardinal commended by name the Consumers'
League, an organization of women who were engaged in
combating the sweatshop evil, and urged cooperation by
all in its efforts.
After a prize fight in 1910, there was a wave of pro-
test throughout the country against the exhibition in
theaters of motion pictures reproducing its details.
Gibbons spoke with vigor on the question, saying :
802 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"If the pictures of this contest were permitted, I am
sure hundreds of children would see them, and what
would be the result'? Their morals would not only be
contaminated, but they would have the wrong ideal of
a true hero. After seeing the pictures a boy would nat-
urally infer that the real American hero was a man be-
spattered with blood and with a swollen eye given him by
another in a fistic encounter. The boy would go and try
to do likewise. This would be a sad state of affairs.
There are true heroes whom the young can emulate in a
way to improve their manhood and ideals."
He was opposed to the principle of national ownership
of public utilities. In an article in the Outlook in 1917
he gave the caution: "Do not nag the railroads." He
pronounced the American roads much more efficient than
those of Europe, and expressed the hope that they might
continue in private ownership in order to ward off the
danger of a centralized power in the body politic com-
posed of railroad officials and employees.
Roosevelt once said that there was a lack of candor on
the part of public men in the United States ; that there
was only one man who had the courage to speak the truth
under all circumstances and that man was Cardinal
Gibbons. The Cardinal spurned the spread-eagle type
of ostentatious patriotism, which blinds itself to na-
tional defects in dwelling upon the other side of the pic-
ture. But never once in the voluminous record of his
public utterances did he express doubt that evils of all
sorts from which the United States suffered would be
overcome. In the long processes of political and social
development his confidence, as he said repeatedly, was in
the "intelligence and patriotism of the American people."
WIDE SCOPE AS CITIZEN 803
In order that intelligence and patriotism might not fail of
full effect, they must be exercised through active partici-
pation by the individual citizen in public affairs. No one
set more conspicuously than he this example which he
exhorted his fellow-countrymen to follow.
CHAPTER XLV
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR
Cardinal Gibbons was within a month of being eighty
years old when the flame was kindled at Sarajevo that
spread until it had set all Europe in a blaze of war. In
little more than a week after his birthday the German
armies were streaming across the border of Belgium. He
had been too practical to cherish dreams of a serene and
unclouded old age, but the convulsion of the nations
shocked him more than it did most men, because it meant
the failure, at least temporarily, of his protracted efforts
in behalf of world peace by the arbitral settlement of
international disputes.
For his own country he had thought that he saw com-
parative safety in following the counsel of Washington
to avoid entanglements with Europe, so far as they in-
volved participation in offensive or defensive alliances
that contained within themselves the seeds of war; but
the project of international cooperation in steps for the
prevention of war seemed to him to be the best means at
hand during his lifetime for giving effect to what Wash-
ington had sought.
On the day when he learned that Germany had de-
clared war on Russia, and that the great nations of
Europe would inevitably be drawn in, he said :
804
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 805
"It is dreadful. I had hoped and prayed that such a
war might be averted. The misery and the sufferings that
will result from it will be almost unfathomable. ... I
had hoped against hope in the last few days that some-
thing would arise to prevent such a blight."
No American was more grieved than he at the depths
of suffering into which Belgium was plunged. His ties
with that country and its royal family had been close and
had been renewed only a month before the war broke out,
when he had dined with King Albert in the palace at
Brussels, and Queen Elizabeth had visited him in Switz-
erland. He had defended the government of Leopold,
the predecessor of Albert, from the charge of maladmin-
istration in the Congo State, though he had not attempted
to exert any influence in regard to the international as-
pects of that controversy which threatened for a time to
assume a serious form. The destruction of Louvain Uni-
versity, where so many Americans had received higher
training for the priesthood, moved him profoundly.
He accepted the honorary presidency of the Central
Committee of the Belgian Relief Fund, which was
formed in America to aid women and children made
destitute in the martyrdom of their country. Mercier,
the hero Cardinal of Belgium, his long-time friend, soon
learned of the powerful help given by Gibbons in the
raising of funds for relief, and began a correspondence
with him which continued throughout the war. Gibbons
remarked that "too much cannot be said in praise of the
heroism of the little nation and its King," adding:
"Had Belgium acquiesced in the demand of Germany,
and permitted the free passage of the German armies,
806 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
they would have marched straight to Calais and dictated
terms to the world. If the Allies should prove victori-
ous, to Belgium should be restored fourfold what she has
sacrificed."
The death of Pius X on August 20, 1914, which was
due in large part, perhaps even wholly, to the shock
caused by the outbreak of the war, caused Gibbons to
hasten to Rome. Pius had been crushed by a realization
of the fact that the religious forces of the world were
helpless to check the progress of the unexampled strife.
In one of his last moments he said :
"In ancient times the Pope by a word might have
stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent."
Again he remarked as death seemed at hand:
"I begin to think, as the end is approaching, that the
Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare
me the horrors which Europe is undergoing."
Gibbons, who had visited Rome only a few months
before, retraced his journey in an effort to arrive in time
for the conclave that was to elect a successor to the See
of Peter. On the day after the death of Pius, he sailed
from New York for Naples with Cardinal O'Connell.
Cardinal Farley, the third American member of the
Sacred College, was then in Switzerland.
Despite his eighty years, there was a suggestion in sev-
eral quarters that Gibbons might be supported for the
supreme Pontificate. When the matter was mentioned
in his presence, he remarked that he "preferred to be an
American Cardinal."
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 807
Gibbons and O'Connell arrived in Naples on the morn-
ing of September 3. A few hours after they set foot on
land, and before they could reach the Eternal City, Car-
dinal della Chiesa, Archbishop of Bologna, was elected
Pope, taking the name of Benedict XV. The vote of
Cardinal Farley had prevented America from being un-
represented in the conclave. Gibbons was one of the
first persons outside of that gathering to greet the new
Pope, who had had occasion in former years to learn of
the real reach of his influence through having been secre-
tary to Cardinal Rampolla. Benedict was being robed in
his new white cassock when the American Cardinal ar-
rived, the conclave not having been dissolved.
At Benedict's invitation, he remained in Rome for a
short time and visited the Pope twice for consultation.
Nine days after his arrival he sailed for home, reaching
Baltimore September 24. Upon his return there he said :
"Thank God that amid the horrors of war I find here
our country enjoying the blessings of peace. Too much
praise cannot be bestowed upon the rulers of our nation
who have persistently refused to draw the sword, even
under provocations at times trying."
Four days later, opening a convention in Baltimore of
the American Federation of Catholic Societies, he prayed
for peace, asking that Divine guidance be given to Presi-
dent Wilson and the administration. The President hav-
ing requested general prayers for peace on October 4,
Gibbons issued a circular to the priests of his diocese in
which he said :
"In compliance with the edifying invitation of the
President, you are hereby directed to signalize Sunday,
808 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the fourth day of October, with some special prayers of
devotion directed to Almighty God, to obtain from Him
the blessings of peace for the warring nations of Europe,
and in your sermon on that day you will urge upon your
people to pray for the same holy intention in their private
devotions at home."
In the first few months of the war, Gibbons saw
nothing that Americans could do to avert the fate which
was overtaking Europe, except to pray for peace and to
assist those made homeless by the conflict. As it seemed
to him, there were two great influences which in some
way might become effective later in ending the slaughter.
These were the Holy See, which implored peace by the
best practical means that could be found by statesmen,
and the United States, which, being then in a detached
position, might find an opening for the exercise of its
good offices. What that opening might be, he could not
see; still he hoped that it would be disclosed. As a gen-
eral course of action for Americans, he advised prudence
and calmness in speech and action.
He was moved to emphasize his exhortation to calm-
ness when the news of the sinking of the Lusitania
reached him. He said :
"I feel the greatest horror over this tragedy — so many
women, children and other non-combatants losing their
lives. The American people must be calm and prudent.
It is best to leave the destinies of the nation in the hands
of the President and the government. Popular sentiment
is not a standard to be followed too hastily. The calm
deliberation of our national executive will lead to the best
solution. In the meantime the thing for the people to do
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 809
is to ask Almighty God in fervent prayer to guide our
government to the best and wisest solution."
He urged "trust in God, in His wisdom. His justice
and His love," saying:
"While we cannot understand His thought, we may
be sure that for some good reason He has permitted this
dreadful strife. God is the moral ruler of the nations
and while the human mind shrinks appalled at the de-
struction of life and property, we can still believe that
out of it good will come to the world when nations shall
have been humbled for their pride, their desire for con-
quest and their forgetfulness of the higher things. Then,
in their humiliation, when they have learned that it is
not by might, nor armies, nor cannon, nor rifles that na-
tions come to truest greatness, the world will see how He
has made even the wrath of man to praise Him."
He continued to hope that America might escape being
drawn into the conflict. After the torpedoing of the
Arabic^ he said:
'T feel that the loss of a few lives on the Arabic com-
pares as a feather when weighed against the awful calam-
ity of war. If war comes, it will mean more than the loss
of a few lives. . . . Our best men will be sacrificed. I
hope that the people will consider this well before they
act."
When, soon after the Arabic incident, Germany gave a
definite promise to the United States to modify her
methods of submarine warfare, Gibbons became the
medium of communications between Pope Benedict and
President Wilson in regard to steps which might be taken
to bring the conflict to an end. The position of the
Papacy had been well known from the beginning, and
810 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Benedict was now convinced that, as President Wilson
had shown to both groups of belligerents the fairness and
goodwill of the American government, he was in a posi-
tion to address them with some authority in a manner
which might ultimately lead to a settlement without
prolongation of the bloodshed. For his part, the Pope
expressed his readiness to give the whole support of the
Catholic Church to the person, institution or country that
undertook the "noble mission of ending the war."
Gibbons called upon President Wilson September 2,
and they discussed the entire situation, after which he
conferred with Secretary Lansing at the State Depart-
ment. He engaged in a general discussion with both
officials as to the prospects of effective action for peace.
It appeared, however, that neither of the belligerent
groups was willing to invite the United States, even in-
formally, to intervene, and that nothing which would
have any important result in that direction could be
undertaken at the time. There was accomplished, how-
ever, through the medium of Gibbons, a full understand-
ing between the Vatican and the White House as to the
position of both regarding the outlook, and while Gibbons
still cherished the hope that some action in behalf of
peace might be taken, he was under no illusion that it
was possible to attain that before one of the warring
groups had been reduced to greater extremity than was the
case then.
A little later ^ he expressed the view that there was as
yet no prospect that the United States would be drawn
into the war. He said :
* November i6, 1915.
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 811
"I am not in favor of preparedness for war, and neither
am I in favor of peace at any price. . . . What have we
to fear*? The nations of Europe are exerting their physi-
cal and financial strength, and not one of them is anxious
to cope with a new foe. They do not seek conquest on
this side of the world. Rather are they anxious to attain
friendly relations with this great nation. Therefore I
see no reason why we should fear hostilities."
He rebuked those who asserted that the war indicated
failure on the part of Christianity, saying:
''Christianity is not an issue in the war, because those
who entered the war are not following the teachings of
Christ. He taught peace on earth. . . . Had the natiens
followed the teachings of Christ, there would be no war
today."
He was one of the first to call attention to the fact that
the war was turning men's minds to religion. Late in
1915 he said:
"A tremendous religious reawakening all over Europe
is already beginning to show. Particularly is this true
in France and Germany. Men are coming to realize the
need and comfort of religion."
He refused to associate himself in any way with the
movement of Henry Ford, which resulted in the sending
of an unofficial American peace mission to Europe. Ford
called upon him in Baltimore and outlined the plan to
him but was unable to alter the Cardinal's view that it
would be ineffective. When the League to Enforce Peace
was formed, however, he saw in it at least the germ of a
practical idea, and wrote thus to its head, ex-President
Taft:
812 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"The plan is a sane one, for it does not make the mis-
take of disregarding the fact that human nature in the
future will be very much the same as today and yester-
day. The passions of men cannot be wholly eliminated.
The same is true of their weaknesses; but much could be
done to curb the one and strengthen the other." ^
The accumulating complications of the war that in-
volved America caused Gibbons at last to accept reluc-
tantly the view that his country could not escape par-
ticipation. His thoughts then turned to preparation for
the emergency which he regarded as almost inevitable.
On his eighty-second birthday he declared for universal
military training to "safeguard the nation, build up its
manhood, and fuse its foreign strains." He said:
"The camp schools make a man stronger and broader.
They make him more patriotic and more fit physically,
morally, socially and intellectually. They take him from
the passions of vice and sin. They throw him in touch
with men of other circumstances, from other places.
They make him feel that there is something out there in
the nation which demands his loyalty and service. They
bring the rich man and the poor man together on an equal
footing, and teach them that they owe an equal alle-
giance."
His conviction that America must meet the shock
deepened fast, and when the final steps were taken that
pledged the nation on the side of the Allies he was fully
prepared. On April 6, the day when the Congressional
resolution was passed declaring that a state of war existed
between the United States and Germany, the Cardinal
'May, 1916.
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 813
said that "there must be no shirkers." He expressed his
complete readiness to support his country in any way and
urged Catholic young men to enlist, saying:
"In the present emergency it behooves every American
citizen to do his duty and to uphold the hands of the
President and the legislative department in the solemn
obligation that confronts us. The primary duty of a
citizen is loyalty to his country. This loyalty is mani-
fested more by acts than words ; by solemn service rather
than empty declamation. It is exhibited in absolute and
unreserved obedience to his country's call.
"Both houses of Congress, with the executive, are
charged and sworn to frame those laws that are demanded
by the present crisis. Whatever, therefore. Congress may
decide should be unequivocally complied with by every
patriotic citizen. The members of both houses of Con-
gress are the instruments of God in guiding us in our
civic duties. It behooves all of us, therefore, to pray
that the Lord of Hosts may inspire our national legisla-
ture and executive to frame such laws in the present
crisis as will redound to the glory of our country, to
righteousness of conduct, and to the future permanent
peace of the nations of the world."
Under the leadership of Gibbons, the Catholics of the
United States were the first religious body to pledge their
full and active support to the government. On April 18,
twelve days after the declaration of war, the Archbishops,
on his proposal, adopted the following resolution at their
annual meeting held at the Catholic University in Wash-
ington :
"Standing firmly upon our solid Catholic tradition and
history, from the very foundation of this nation, we af-
firm in this hour of stress and trial our most sacred and
814 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
sincere loyalty and patriotism toward our country, our
government, and our flag.
"Moved to the very depths of our hearts by the stirring
appeal of the President of the United States, and by the
action of our National Congress, we accept whole-heart-
edly and unreservedly the decree of that legislative
authority proclaiming this country to be in a state of war.
"We have prayed that we might be spared the dire
necessity of entering the conflict, but now that war has
been declared we bow in obedience to the summons to bear
our part in it with fidelity, with courage and with the
spirit of sacrifice which as loyal citizens we are bound to
manifest for the defense of the most sacred rights, and
the welfare of the whole nation.
"Acknowledging gladly the gratitude that we have
always felt for the protection of our spiritual liberty and
the freedom of our Catholic institutions, under the flag,
we pledge our devotion and our strength in the mainte-
nance of our country's glorious leadership in these posses-
sions and principles which have been America's proudest
boast.
"Inspired neither by hate nor fear, but by the holy
sentiments of truest patriotic fervor and zeal, we stand
ready, we and all the flock committed to our keeping, to
co-operate in every way possible with our President and
our national government, to the end that the great and
holy cause of liberty may triumph and that our beloved
country may emerge from this hour of test stronger and
nobler than ever.
"Our people, as ever, will rise as one man to serve the
nation. Our priests and consecrated women will once
again, as in every former trial of our country, win by their
bravery, their heroism and their service new admiration
and approval.
"We are all true Americans, ready as our age, our
ability and our condition permit, to do whatever is in us
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 815
to do for the preservation, the progress and triumph of
our beloved country.
"May God direct and guide our President and our gov-
ernment, that out of this trying crisis in our national life
may at length come a closer union among all citizens of
America and that an enduring and blessed peace may
crown the sacrifices which war inevitably entails."
Gibbons sent the resolutions the next day to President
Wilson, who responded in a letter in which he wrote :
"The very remarkable resolutions unanimously adopted
by Archbishops of the United States at their annual meet-
ing in the Catholic University on April i8th last, a copy
of which you were kind enough to send me, warmed my
heart and made me proud indeed that men of such large
influence should act in so large a sense of patriotism and
so admirable a spirit of devotion to our common
country." ^
The measure of the response brought forth by this
attitude of the leaders of the Church in America may be
gathered from the fact that Secretary Baker later esti-
mated the number of Catholics in the military and naval
service at approximately one third of the total, although
Catholics formed but one sixth of the population.
From that moment until the war closed Gibbons, in all
his public utterances that related to the supreme effort
which America put forth, exhorted the fullest support
of the public authorities. In an address at the commence-
ment of Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland,
on June 19, 1917, he told the graduates that the United
States had entered the conflict against Germany for prin-
' Letter of President Wilson to Cardinal Gibbons, April 27, 1917.
816 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ciples based upon the solid foundation of justice and
righteousness, saying :
"We have not entered the terrible struggle simply for
the glory that is in it ; we have a nobler and a higher mo-
tive. God will guide our armies in the field and bring
them to victory, because we are on the side of right. No
standing army or superdreadnaught ever put together can
win a war for any other cause."
Herbert Hoover conferred with Gibbons soon after
the declaration of war regarding the conservation of the
food supplies of the country, soliciting his aid in the
steps which the government was about to take with that
end in view. The Cardinal promptly sent a letter to the
priests in his archdiocese, urging them to impress upon
their congregations the need of saving food as a factor in
bringing victory.
The Knights of Columbus were among the first organi-
zations which took effective action both for sustaining the
general war measures of the government and for helping
the soldiers and sailors called for service. The directors
of that order, at a meeting in Washington April 14,
passed resolutions declaring that "the crisis confronting
our country calls for the active cooperation and patriotic
zeal of every true citizen." They reaffirmed "the patri-
otic devotion of 400,000 members of this order in this
country to our republic and its laws," and pledged their
"continued and unconditional support of the President
and the Congress of this nation in their determination
to protect its honor and its ideals of humanity and right."
President Wilson, in a letter of acknowledgment, pro-
nounced this support "most enheartening."
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 817
The Catholic Young Men's Union also undertook
active work in support of the government. The Rev.
John J. Burke, editor of the Catholic World, founded the
Chaplains' Aid Association, whose object was to supply
a sufficient number of Catholic chaplains for the soldiers
and sailors and to assist them in their work.
As Father Burke proceeded with his undertaking, he
perceived the need of a more coordinated organization
for marshaling the Catholics of the nation for the war.
He laid before Cardinal Gibbons the project of calling a
general meeting of Catholic societies for the purpose of
unifying the war work. Gibbons asked him to consult
Cardinals O'Connell and Farley, and if they concurred
in his program to take the necessary steps for holding the
meeting as soon as possible. The three Cardinals were
unanimous as to the necessities of the case.
At a meeting held August ii and 12 at the Catholic
University, at which were present representatives, both
clerical and lay, from sixty-eight dioceses in the United
States, and representatives of many Catholic organiza-
tions, the National Catholic War Council was formed to
assist the government by unifying all Catholic war ac-
tivities, by the establishment of local boards for the
same purpose in each diocese, and, acting through the
Knights of Columbus, by giving support to the welfare
work for the soldiers in the camps. Father Burke was
elected the first president of the council.
That bo'dy proceeded with its task in full cooperation
with the numerous non-Catholic organizations having the
same objects in view which sprang up out of the general
patriotic outburst of the people. It had been supposed at
818 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the beginning that $1,000,000 would be sufficient for its
needs, but so greatly did its operations expand that nearly
$50,000,000 were required in the end.*
As the fast-spreading activities of the council empha-
sized the need of a still more compact organization, Car-
dinal Gibbons addressed a letter to the Hierarchy early
in November, proposing the formation of a new National
Catholic War Council to be composed of the Archbishops.
This letter embodied a decision taken at an informal dis-
cussion by the prelates who had attended a meeting of
the Catholic University trustees. In his letter, Gibbons
set forth that it was their unanimous opinion that the
Hierarchy should act in concert in the support of the gov-
ernment during the war; that the responsibility of taking
the lead rested upon the Board of Archbishops, and that
they should organize without delay as a Catholic War
Council, associating with themselves a number of the
Bishops for the active execution of the general plan. He
added that the war "puts to the severest test not only
our spirit of zeal, but our ability to organize and, with
new difficulties, all realize that the situation demands
the best thought and the best efforts of us all."
Responses to Gibbons' letter were unanimously favor-
able. On December 19 he sent a second letter to the
Archbishops, proposing that as they could not meet as
frequently as the situation demanded, the active man-
agement of the War Council's activities should be in-
trusted to a committee of Bishops. This plan having
been approved, an administrative committee' of Bishops
* Michael Williams, American Catholics in the fFar, pp. 113, et scq.
"The members of this committee were the Rt. Revs. P. J. Muldoon,
Bishop of Rockford, Chairman; Joseph Schremos, Bishop of Toledo;
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 819
was appointed. Gibbons called together the members of
this committee in a letter dated January 12, 1918, defin-
ing their work as the direction and control, with the help
of the American Hierarchy, of all Catholic activities con-
nected with the war. Father Burke was appointed chair-
man of a committee on special war activities.
The War Department of the federal government was
quick to realize the potent help which could now be ob-
tained by calling upon the Catholic forces of the nation
through the agencies thus set up. In the unexampled
efforts which were put forth by the American people as
a whole to assist their government and minister to the
spiritual and material welfare of the soldiers and sailors,
the National Catholic War Council bore a distinguished
part.
Gibbons, as president of that Council, as well as in
numerous other capacities, became the greatest individual
force, outside of a small circle of men holding high public
offices, in sustaining the government during the war. His
more than eighty years appeared to sit lightly upon him
when he was called upon to respond either by deed or
word to the needs of the nation in its supreme effort. On
his birthday in 1917 he gave the following message to
those about to enroll themselves for the immense army
that was then forming:
"Be Americans always. Remember that you owe all
to America, and be prepared, if your country demands it,
to give all in return."
Patrick J. Hayes, then Auxiliary Bishop of New York, and William T.
Russell, Bishop of Charleston.
820 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
He wrote to President Wilson on October i of that
year, deploring excessive criticism of the war policies
taken by the government, saying :
"In these days of the gravest problems which have ever
weighed upon our American government, our thoughts go
out to the chief executive, warmed by heartfelt sympathy
for the heavy burdens of office which he must bear, and
freighted with the unwavering determination of loyal
citizens to stand by him in his every effort to bring suc-
cess to our armies, and to achieve those ideals of justice
and humanity which compelled our entrance into the
war."
The President replied to him in terms of deep apprecia-
tion.
In a sermon at the Baltimore Cathedral on Sunday,
October 28, Gibbons urged all to pray for the United
States and to give complete support to the government.
He said:
"The paramount duty of American citizens in the pres-
ent crisis is a hearty and loyal obedience to the consti-
tuted authorities. Be slow to criticize. Remember that
you view the subject from one angle. Your rulers con-
template it from various angles. They have lights and
sources of information that are closed to you.
"Your judgment of the administration and your criti-
cism of their official acts should be always subordinated
to a generous and whole souled submission to their rul-
ings. It is theirs to command ; it is yours to obey, and in
manifesting your loyalty to your country you will be
pursuing a sacred and honorable course, and will be fol-
lowing the invariable traditions of your fathers from
the foundation of the republic.
"Do not attempt to snatch faded laurels from the
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 821
brows of your fathers. Let your own heads be crowned
with fresh garlands. Say not like the Jews of old : 'We
have Abraham for our father.' Say not, 'We are the po-
litical children of Washington and the religious children
of Carroll.' It will profit you nothing to possess their
creed if you do not practise their civic and religious
virtues."
He continued to defend the justice of America's cause.
On December 19, he issued a statement that in entering
the war "we took the only course open to us," adding:
"As an evidence of the righteousness of America's cause
in the war, I would point to the patience of our President
and Congress under the long series of grave injuries and
broken pledges endured by the United States during the
time when Germany was professing friendship for us.
We were shocked to see our property unjustly destroyed
in vast quantity, but what was immeasurably more seri-
ous was to read of our men, women and children killed
in violation of the universally accepted customs of the
sea.
"When, at length, not only American citizens but
neutrals everywhere suffered appallingly under the cruel-
ties of a nation which hesitated not to disregard inter-
national law, we learned that patience was being con-
strued as cowardice, and that it was folly to hope that
wiser councils would prevail among our enemies to bring
about a change in their lawless policy. Then we took the
only course open to us, the defense of our sovereign
rights, as a nation upholding the ideals of truth and jus-
tice in the hearts of all peoples.
"We have entered the struggle with a clear conscience,
seeking no territorial or financial gain, but the peace of
the world, the liberty of its people and the security of all
nations."
822 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Meanwhile Gibbons freely lent his immense influence
to the stimulation of war activities not directly connected
with the policy of the government or with naval and mili-
tary operations. He encouraged the women to give their
active help to their country, and in an address to the
Baltimore Catholic Women's War Relief Organization,
late in 1917, suggested that the needle might even prove
to be mightier than the sword, saying:
"The sword is a weapon of destruction; the needle is
an instrument of construction. . . . While you are
seated over your work and while your busy hands are
plying the needle, let your hearts expand in sympathy for
the loved ones who are so far away, and let your lips
whisper a prayer that they may return safe to their
beloved ones at home."
He issued several urgent appeals in the course of the
war for the support of the American Red Cross. To the
pupils of the Catholic schools, he made an especial request
to enroll as junior members of the Red Cross, declaring
that "in this time of peril our country needs the services
of the children as well as of the adults."
It being desired that coal miners should work on holy
days and legal holidays, in order to keep up the country's
supply of fuel, the help of Gibbons was asked. In a let-
ter to Fuel Administrator Garfield, he urged that the
miners should work on such days until the coal scarcity
was over. He wrote:
"It will be an invaluable service to the country and to
humanity if they (the coal miners) will work regularly
and avoid unnecessary loss of time, for every ton of coal
which they place at the disposal of industries contributes
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 823
toward the success of the nation in the titanic struggle on
which we have entered."
On January 12, 1918, he issued an appeal in behalf of
the war thrift campaign, saying:
"The door of opportunity to serve our country is flung
wide open for practically every man, woman and child
by the sale of War Savings Stamps. ... I earnestly
commend to young and old, and more particularly to
parents, this simple and easy method of acquiring the
habit of thrift. We have reached a time when no loyal
citizen of our country can afford to spend a dollar for
wasteful luxuries. Such an expenditure resolves itself
into a disloyal act. . . .
"I urge upon our clergy and our parochial schools to
aid in every way in the purchase of war savings stamps.
For the help it gives to our country's cause, for the good
it will be to those who take such steps, may this move-
ment carry its patriotic and practical mission to every
nook and corner of the nation."
Preaching at the Baltimore Cathedral on Sunday, Feb-
ruary 14,*^ Gibbons declared that the German war aims
would fail. After emphasizing that the "spiritual re-
public" founded by the Apostles without the sword had
endured, he continued:
"What does this prove? ... It proves that all
schemes conceived in passion and fomented by lawless
ambition, of which the present world-wide war is a strik-
ing illustration, are doomed like the mountain torrent to
carry terror before them, and to leave ruin and desolation
after them, while the mission of men laboring under the
inspiration of heaven is destined to shed blessings around
them and to bring forth abundant fruit in due season.
•1918.
824 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Let us earnestly pray that our brave young soldiers who
are now in the trenches, or who are preparing to go there,
may be preserved in their faith and morals from the dan-
gers that surround them, and that they may heroically
fulfil their mission."
From time to time, as the war progressed in intensity
and the sufferings which it brought were deepened, the
Pope was condemned in some quarters for not having
taken a pronounced stand in regard to the conflict at its
outset. Gibbons, in an article in America^ the Jesuit
Weekly,^ defended the course of Benedict XV. He
showed that it was not Benedict but Pius who was reign-
ing when Belgium was invaded in 1914, and that Pius
was already in the shadow of death; that Benedict had
strongly reprobated the violation of Belgium, had pro-
tested to Russia against the violence to persons and con-
science in the early occupations of East Prussia and
Galicia, and had labored for prisoners and the war crip-
pled and blind. In this article Gibbons wrote :
"It has been said again and again that Benedict XV
has forgotten Belgium, that he did not speak up for her
in her hour of betrayal by the superior forces of her
invaders. When Benedict XV came to the throne Bel-
gium had already been invaded by the German armies
and a considerable part of her territory overrun. The
flagrant injustice had already been committed.
"When the invasion took place the saintly Pius was
already in the shadow of death. On coming to the throne
the new Pope did not wait long to let the world know
of his sentiments with regard to the violation of Belgian
territory. He spoke at first with prudent circumspection,
^ February, 1919.
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 825
for not all the facts were in his possession. But he soon
learned the truth and acted conformably to it.
"According to the letter written by the Papal Secre-
tary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, to M. van der Heuvel,
Belgian minister to the Vatican, 'the violation of the
neutrality of Belgium, carried out by Germany, on the
admission of her own chancellor, contrary to interna-
tional law, was one of those injustices which the Holy
Father in his consistorial allocution of January 22
strongly reprobated.'
"His Holiness also protested to Russia against the
violence to persons and to conscience displayed during
the early occupation of East Prussia and Galicia, and
against the harsh treatment of Monsignor Szeptycki, the
venerable Archbishop of Lemberg. He has labored for
the prisoners of war, for the crippled and the blind of
the war's countless battlefields. Not once has he for-
gotten that he is the father of the faithful.
"His conduct toward the Italian government has been
marked by such a spirit of conciliation, justice and abso-
lute impartiality that high government officials have
praised him and those under his jurisdiction. The silly
and cowardly slanders recently brought against his
patriotism by radicals are so gross as not to deserve a
refutation.
"The Holy Father has faced a terrible ordeal. He is
facing it still. On all sides he is surrounded by pitfalls.
Every act of his is watched, scrutinized, by jealous, criti-
cal, hostile eyes, only too ready to find fault and to
register blame. More than ever he needs the support of
his loyal children.
"The Roman Pontiffs of the past have ever found in
American Catholics a whole hearted devotion. We are
not going to fail our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XV, in
this supreme hour. For all that he has done so nobly
and so unselfishly for the cause of peace and humanity
826 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
his faithful children here in the United States, for whose
people he has more than once expressed his admiration
and love, are profoundly grateful.
"Though at war in order that all the peoples of the
earth may be really free, we wish with him that a just
peace may soon be gained. For that peace he has nobly
and generously striven. Men may not now realize the
extent and the nobility of his efforts, but when the voices
of passion are stilled history will do him justice.
"As a last word I beg to congratulate my countrymen
on the generous ardor with which they have rallied to
the support of our beloved President in his dark hour of
trial. He has striven for high ideals and has found a
reward in an enthusiastic response from his fellow citi-
zens. They have not failed him and will not do so in
the future, but will continue to give him and his col-
leagues that loyal support which is an earnest of com-
plete victory and of a return of the happy peace for which
he and the Holy Father are laboring each in his own
sphere."
Benedict XV pronounced Gibbons' defense to be the
best exposition that had been given of his difficult posi-
tion. So much impressed was he with the article that he
ordered it printed in many languages and distributed. It
was a forecast of the vindication that came to Benedict
after the fiercest passions of the war had cooled.
In the campaigns to obtain subscriptions to the Liberty
Loans, Gibbons' help to the government was invaluable.
He himself declared that he had invested in these loans
"every cent at my command." All funds entrusted to
him for general uses were, so far as it was proper to do
so, invested in the same way. In a public appeal which
he issued in behalf of the third Liberty loan, he implored
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 827
Catholics to "come to the front now and give, give and
give, until there is little left in the purse."
For an army and navy edition of the New Testament,
issued under the patronage of the Hierarchy for distribu-
tion to the armed forces of the nation, he wrote a preface
from which the following is an extract :
"Called by the President, as the Commander-in-Chief
of the forces of the nation, to the service of your country,
love for its soil and its people must necessarily be the
mainspring of all your military activities. In these re-
spects, Christ, our Lord, is your example. He loved His
native land, for He sanctified it by His presence; He con-
secrated it in His precious blood, and He illuminated it
by the glory of His resurrection. He loved his people.
. . . As the sorrow and suffering of Good Friday were
followed by the joy and triumph of Easter morning, may
you who now 'sow in tears' later 'reap in joy.' "
In the same preface he exhorted obedience to superiors
and fortitude in meeting the duties and dangers of war.
He cheered the "war mothers" in a letter read at a
mothers' mass meeting in Baltimore (May ii, 1918) in
which he wrote :
"Every day news comes to us of our boys, both at
home and abroad, freely giving themselves to the cause
of liberty and justice, determined to endure all things
— yea, if need be to die in defence of what they
deem holy and right. But what of the mothers of these
boys'? It will not be disputed that their self-sacrifice is
the harder, their offering the more noble. Like that other
mother who stood on Calvary and saw her Son die that
men might live, the mothers whom you honor today suf-
fer quietly, patiently and willingly. . . . May God bless
828 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
these mothers and give strength and courage to their
hearts."
President Wilson having proclaimed Memorial Day,
May 30, 1918, a day of public humiliation, prayer and
fasting "beseeching Him that He will give victory to our
armies in the fight for freedom," Gibbons sent to every
Catholic pastor in his diocese a letter ordering services
to be held in accordance with the proclamation, and en-
closing a copy of it. In this letter he directed the priests
"to have a Mass celebrated on May 30th to place before
God those lofty Christian prayers of sorrow for our fail-
ings, and petitions for our pressing needs, so admirably
voiced in the recent proclamation of our President."
The degree of support which hundreds of thousands of
Americans of foreign birth gave to the country in its time
of supreme trial greatly heartened Gibbons, as well it
might, for no one had been more instrumental than he
in making that condition possible by his struggle against
the introduction of foreign influences in the Catholic
Church in the United States. In July, 1918, he publicly
expressed his satisfaction at the demonstration of loyalty
by all elements of the population, and urged that the
use of the English language be made obligatory in schools,
because "language is the great assimilator." He added:
"Teach the children of our foreign born the English
language in our schools, and they will absorb the prin-
ciples and traditions of our race."
In the tense days during which the American armies
were driving forward along the Marne and the Meuse in
the final struggle of the war, he continued to take advan-
STRESS OF THE WORLD WAR 829
tage of every opportunity to hold up the hands of the
government in the manifold activities to which its great
efforts had given rise.
On the day before the armistice was signed, when it
was evident that the allied armies had conquered, he
preached to soldiers at Camp Meade, Maryland, calling
upon them to thank God for the victory. He saw the
fulfilment of his trust in the spirit with which his coun-
try had embarked in the struggle, saying :
"We have conquered because we believe that righteous-
ness exalteth a nation. We have conquered because we
believe in justice and humanity. We have conquered
because we have fought for the eternal principles of
truth and because we realize that our hope and our de-
pendence, our trust and our success, repose in Him who
is alike the God of battles and of justice."
CHAPTER XLVI
AFTER THE ARMISTICE
Throughout the war Gibbons had been guided by the
promise made by the Hierarchy soon after America en-
tered the conflict. With the coming of peace he felt that
the promise had been fulfilled. He wrote:
"That promise meant the consecration in patriotic
service not only of our priests and of our religious, but
also of our laymen and laywomen ; it meant not only one
organization, but every organization ; not only one source
of support within the command of the body Catholic but
chaplains in the service; men in the army and navy,
trained Catholic men and women who would devote them-
selves to all the men of the service; the support of gov-
errunent appeals by our Catholic parishes ; the erection of
the huts and visitors' houses within the camps here; of
service clubs in the cities ; of welfare work both at home
and abroad. . . . The National Catholic War Council
united in patriotic effort all Catholic organizations. . . .
It has brought into national expression the Catholic prin-
ciples of justice and of fraternal service that bespeak the
continued prosperity and happiness of America as a
nation." ^
During the period that ushered in the Paris peace con-
ference, he cherished hopes of a blending of Benedict
XV's Christian efforts for a permanent pacification of
* Preface by Cardinal Gibbons to Michael Williams' American Catho-
lics in the JVar.
830
AFTER THE ARMISTICE 831
the world and the idealism with which President Wilson
invested the preliminary discussion of terms. He was in
correspondence with Mr. Wilson and, when the President
went abroad for the conference, with the intention also
of visiting the principal Allied countries, he wrote urging
that a visit to the Pope be included. The letter was :
"November 27, 1918.
*'To the President of the United States.
"My dear Mr. President:
"I thank you very much ior your courteous reply to my
last letter. I have taken the liberty of transmitting your
letter to the Holy Father, as I know it will be a consola-
tion to His Holiness.
"The Holy Father has, both in letters and in private
conversation, so often expressed his great admiration for
and confidence in you, that I have taken it upon myself to
do also what has long been in my mind, which is to make
the following request of you: I know that it will give
the Holy Father increased confidence and courage to
know that you are going to be present at the Peace Con-
ference, for, as you will remember, in the last message
that I had the honor to convey from His Holiness to
yourself, the Holy Father expressed to you his conviction
that all humanity trusted to your ability and impartial-
ity. I have since learned that while you are abroad you
will visit Italy and I take for granted that you will go to
Rome, and this brings me to the point of my request :
"My dear Mr. President, as an American as well as a
Catholic, as one who is bound to you by the bonds of
patriotism as I am bound to the Holy Father in the bonds
of religion, I ask you in the strongest and most affection-
ate manner of which I am capable not to leave Rome
without paying a personal visit to the Pope. I ask you
to do this not only because it will be a great consolation
832 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to the Holy Father, who so admires and trusts you, not
only because it will bind the hearts of Catholics to you
forever, but because it will delight the hearts of all good
men, who whether they agree with the Holy Father in
religion or not, at least recognize him as the representa-
tive of the greatest moral authority left in the world, and
because you, Mr. President, in the opinion of all men,
are the one who raised the late war from the plane of
national jealousies into the plane of idealism and made
it a conflict and a struggle for justice, for righteousness,
for liberty and for nothing else. I say, then, that it will
give delight to all men of good will to know that you
have not disregarded or slighted the representative of the
moral order.
"I feel sure that I have only asked you to do what you
have already determined in your heart to do, but which I
felt it was nevertheless my duty to put before you.
"I am, my dear Mr. President, with sentiments of the
highest esteem,
"Very sincerely yours,
"J. Card. Gibbons,
*' Archbishop of Baltimore."'
President Wilson visited Benedict XV on the fourth of
the following January, when they had a full exchange
of views on the overwhelming concerns of the world
which engrossed both of them.
Gibbons issued a fervent appeal for the Victory Lib-
erty Loan in April, 1919, saying:
"The Liberty Loans, which came to broaden the vision,
were providential, A nation always generous, but some-
times thoughtless, even in its generosity; a nation which
had preserved the ideals of the fathers of the country,
but had wandered far from their examples of frugality
and thrift, again expressed its patriotism by showing, in
AFTER THE ARMISTICE 833
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, that citizens who
had never learned to save for themselves, could save and
deny themselves for America. . . .
"Work for the Victory Liberty Loan. If this involves
sacrifice, glory in the sacrifice, with knowledge that char-
acter is built on sacrifice, and by character America shall
be made more truly great with each succeeding year."
Always looking ahead, Gibbons turned at once to the
problems of reconstruction. He no more lacked faith in
the successful working out of those problems than he had
lacked faith as to victory when America entered the war.
In a Christmas message ^ calling upon all to rejoice over
peace, he said that he saw no danger to the country in
the period of reconstruction. He trusted the intelligence
and common sense of the mass of the American working-
men, and believed that the war would leave no great
problem of labor. Neither did he fear a Socialist wave,
believing that the workers in the United States could not
be won to that cause. He added :
"The only apprehension I might have would be with
regard to the consolidation of control of the great public
interests of the country in the authorities of the govern-
ment itself."
This was an allusion to the railroads, telegraph lines
and other public utilities which had been taken over by
the government for the purpose of more effective prosecu-
tion of the war and which were subsequently returned to
their private owners, as Gibbons had hoped.
He favored a firm policy toward Communists and
other extreme radicals who became active in the United
•1918.
834 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
States soon after the conclusion of the war, in sympathy
with the Bolsheviki of Russia. On December 29, 1919,
he said :
"If the members of the Red organization do not like
this country, let them go home. If they do not go, then
we will have to send them there. They came here to
become future citizens, not to be dictators. We cannot
let them become dictators.
"The foreigners who come to our shores have every
opportunity to earn an honest living. Their environ-
ments here are much better than they had at home, and
the authorities give them every assistance possible to
make them useful citizens of this grand country.
"The laws here are not as hard to obey as those with
which they had to contend in their former countries, but
the foreigners must remember that the laws of this coun-
try must be obeyed by them, the same as our own people
must obey them. They cannot tell the authorities here
how to run the country."
In a New Year message to the public, which he was
asked to give at the opening of 1920, he emphasized the
same thoughts, saying:
"All are now faced with the important mission to de-
nounce and discountenance the Bolsheviki and radicals,
whose aim is to undermine the principles of our insti-
tutions and to substitute anarchy for law."
When Cardinal Mercier came on a mission to extend
the thanks of Belgians for the help which they had re-
ceived from Americans in their hour of bitter trial, he
was the guest of Gibbons in Baltimore, where those two
giants of the Catholic faith exchanged felicitations upon
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CARDINAL GIBBONS ON HIS 85TH BIRTHDAY
In the (jarden of the residence of T. Herbert Shrirer, Union Mills, Md.
AFTER THE ARMISTICE 835
the happy outcome. The Belgian Cardinal expressed his
deep gratitude at a meeting held in that city, at which
he was presented to the audience by Gibbons as "an
ardent patriot and fearless champion, who vindicated and
upheld the honor, sovereignty and independence of his
country at the risk of death itself."
Later, when King Albert visited the United States,
Gibbons was his guest at an official dinner in Washing-
ton. The Catholic University conferred a degree upon
the king and Gibbons presided at the ceremony, which
was attended by the elite of Washington. On the same
day he presided at the conferring of an honorary degree
by Trinity College upon the Belgian Queen Elizabeth.
While the war was in progress he had set on foot a
collection among the Catholic parishes of the country in
favor of the Catholic universities of Louvain and Lille,
sorely tried by the strife. The amount obtained was
about $100,000 and was evenly divided between those in-
stitutions.
While Gibbons did not doubt that the problems of
reconstruction would be solved without grave danger to
American institutions, he emphasized that the help of all
was needed for that purpose. The National Catholic
War Council, when the conflict had ended, turned its
attention as soon as possible to reconstruction plans and
in time was transformed into the National Catholic Wel-
fare Council for dealing with the problems of peace.
At a meeting at the Catholic University in September,
1919, presided over by Gibbons, the Hierarchy adopted a
pastoral letter, the first since the Third Plenary Council
in 1884, which was sent out over his signature and read
836 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
from every Catholic pulpit in America. The letter set
forth :
"We entered the war with the highest of objects, pro-
claiming at every step that we battled for the right, and
pointing to our country as a model for the world's imita-
tion. We accepted therewith the responsibility of leader-
ship in accomplishing the task that lies before mankind.
The world awaits our fulfillment."
As to reconstruction, the letter declared that it would
be an error to assume that the issues involved were purely
economic, as they were at bottom moral and religious.
It was urged that factions and elements should not fail to
realize that the people as a whole had a prior claim to
consideration. The supposition so much encouraged by
radicals that class was naturally hostile to class was
combated as a grave error. Not only were the obliga-
tions of capital and labor mutual, but their needs and in-
terests were mutual also. The moral value of man and
the dignity of labor were emphasized. The letter pro-
ceeded :
"The right of labor to a living wage, with decent main-
tenance for the present and provision for the future, is
generally recognized. The right of capital to a fair day's
work for a fair day's pay is equally plain. To secure
the practical recognition and exercise of both rights, good
will, no less than adherence to justice, is required. Ani-
mosity and mistrust should first be cleared away. When
this is done, when the parties meet in a friendly rather
than a militant spirit, it will be possible to effect a concil-
iation.
"We are confident that the good sense of our people
will find a way out of the present situation. As the con-
AFTER THE ARMISTICE 837
fusion occasioned by war subsides, calmer judgment will
prevail. Men will see that internal peace and the co-
operation of all classes must be secured if our country is
to enjoy prosperity at home and respect abroad. Ameri-
ca's great opportunity must not be sacrificed to selfish
aims or partisan interests. We made war upon greed and
selfish ambition. We shall not let them triumph within
our own borders.
"Catholics will do their full share toward the com-
plete restoration of peace. With one mind and heart they
will labor for our country's advantage. As their patriotic
efforts were united to such good effect through the Na-
tional Catholic War Council, we have determined, for the
ends of peace, to maintain the spirit of union and co-
ordination through the National Catholic Welfare Coun-
cil. Under its direction our needs and problems in the
several fields of education and social reform will be care-
fully studied. Means will be taken to secure and publish
correct information on all matters affecting the Church
and Catholic life. The work of our organizations will be
developed and directed toward the fuller attainment of
Catholic aims."
In his New Year sermon at the Baltimore Cathedral,
January 3, 1920, Gibbons compared America's aid to
Europe during and after the war with the deed of the
Good Samaritan. He said:
"Has not America played the part of the Good Samari-
tan during the late world war^ Have not the American
people been Good Samaritans to prostrate and bleeding
Europe? Has America not aided those who were largely
of a different race, language and religion *?
"America has poured her treasure in abundance into
the lap of Europe. She sent cargoes of provisions to the
starving people. At this very moment, according to infor-
838 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
mation furnished me by Mr. Hoover, America is daily
supplying one or two meals to more than 3,000,000
children in Austria, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and
Poland.
"She has sacrificed her sons on the altar of patriotism
that they might free them from the yoke of bondage.
"All this she has done without demanding or expecting
compensation. She has not asked for a dollar of money
or an inch of territory or an ounce of provisions for all
her outlay. The only remuneration she has is the testi-
mony of a good conscience and the sense of complacency
in the example of disinterested patriotism which she has
exhibited to the nations of the world."
Gibbons added that "the brightest page" in the his-
tory of the war to be chronicled by historians would be
the record of "the part which America performed in the
triumph of justice and humanity and her successive efforts
that liberty should not perish from the earth."
He lent the weight of his influence to the appeals that
were made in behalf of different classes of war sufferers.
In a message to one of the officials of the Near East
Relief, he said:
"The appalling tales of massacre and famine (in that
region) appeal to humanity, and so I cannot urge too
strongly the duty of immediate relief. It is a duty that
rests upon every Christian people, and our country cannot
fail to recognize and heed it."
He urged fervently the giving of assistance to those in
Poland who had been reduced to want by the conflict.
The peace-time program of the American Red Cross was
warmly supported by him. He declared that it was
AFTER THE ARMISTICE 839
"perhaps less dramatic than that of war-time, but none
the less glorious in its spirit and object."
Pope Benedict transmitted a special letter ^ to Mr.
Hoover, through Cardinal Gibbons, giving his endorse-
ment to the European Relief Council, which collected a
large fund in the United States for helping starving and
sick children in Europe.
In October, 1920, Gibbons declared his support of the
League of Nations, holding that its principles were in
accord with the encyclical of Benedict XV urging "that
all States, putting aside mutual suspicions, should unite
in one league, or rather in the family of the peoples, cal-
culated both to maintain their own independence and
safeguard the order of human society." He expressed
his views in a statement which was widely circulated, of
which the following are extracts:
"What I most like and highly value about the proposed
League is first the delay which it imposes upon any and
all nations — you must not rush headlong into this thing
in which we all run the danger of being involved. We
say you must be frank, open and above board, you must
place your plans before the world, and they must and
shall be carefully weighed. In my judgment, this single
new world regulation will reduce wars to a minimum.
Second thought and careful consideration of steps to be
undertaken is imposed, and on second sober thought, few
will draw the sword.
"And then I like and value that phrase and declara-
tion, that it is the friendly right of each member of the
League to bring to the attention of the Assembly or of the
Council any circumstances whatever affecting interna-
tional relations which threaten to disturb international
'December, 1920.
840 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
peace or good understanding between nations upon which
peace depends.
"It shall be the 'friendly right' — I like that immensely.
In the next decade — better in the next ten months — I
hope it will become the friendly right and the inevitable
duty for all nations to combine for the preservation of
peace. How often would wars have been avoided if in
the past we had acted in this way and under these pre-
scriptions ! How often it has been our thought to speak
to a sister nation asking that conditions which are fraught
with danger to the peace of the world and which threaten
our brotherhood should be removed and we have desisted
because, in diplomatic language, that would have been an
unfriendly act!
"I like the plan for delay. I like the solemn agree-
ment for the prevention of international war which the
covenant stands for and for which His Holiness, the
Pope, expresses his warm approval. So with the great
disaster behind us, although we still sit in its dark
shadow, we should be, and I believe we are, determined
to safeguard the order of human society which is in
danger, to maintain the independence of the peoples
within their just borders, and to reduce, if we cannot
wholly abolish, the burden of military expenditure.
"Sitting as a council of brethren, with the shadow
of the great catastrophe still upon us, we should, and I
have no doubt we will, draw nearer to one another and
take up, in a fraternal spirit, seriatim, those vexed ques-
tions that still remain and which are a grave menace to
the fellowship of the forward looking, God fearing, God
loving nations. These questions still threaten the peace
of the world — that peace whose blessings we are just
beginning to enjoy again. The world is very anxious,
very weary."
His confidence in the stability of America found new
AFTER THE ARMISTICE 841
expression October 29 of the same year, in a sermon de-
livered at the Baltimore Cathedral a few days before
the presidential election. Taking for his text "Righteous-
ness Exalteth a Nation," he said:
"There are some despondent, illboding prophets who
are in the habit of predicting the overthrow of our coun-
try. They tell us that the only way to avert this dire
catastrophe would be the election of their favorite can-
didate. These prophecies are made most frequently on
the eve of a presidential election, like the present mo-
ment. I have been listening to these forebodings for the
past sixty years.
"But in every instance, so far, the American people
wake up in the morning after the election to discover that
they were disquieted by false alarms and that the peo-
ple were attending to their affairs and the Government
was transacting its business as tranquilly as if no elec-
tion had taken place.
"From the foundation of our republic over a century
and a quarter ago, our Federal Union has passed through
a series of ordeals and upheavals which were well calcu-
lated to test the strength and endurance of any nation in
the world.
"If I were asked on what grounds do I base my hopes
that our system of government will endure, I answer that
I rest my hopes on the enlightenment and patriotism of
our citizens, the foreign born as well as the natives, for
many of our adopted citizens who have groaned abroad
under the heel of autocratic despotism appreciate all the
more the blessings of constitutional freedom v/hich they
here enjoy and will never surrender these blessings with-
out a struggle. I place my hopes in the wisdom of our
statesmen and in the valor of our soldiers. And surely
we have strong grounds for our reliance on the military
842 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
prowess of our army and navy from the records of the
late war.
"If the American Republic will survive, it must rest
upon a stronger foundation than the patriotism of its
citizens and the wisdom of its statesmen and the valor of
its soldiers. It must rely upon a more impregnable force
than standing armies and dreadnoughts. The race is
not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. If our re-
public is to endure it must rest upon the eternal principles
of justice, truth and righteousness and downright hon-
esty in our dealings with other nations. It must rest on a
devout recognition of an overruling Providence that has
created all things by His wisdom, whose searching eye
watches over the affairs of nations and of men, without
whom not even a bird can fall to the ground."
CHAPTER XLVII
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER
It is Sunday morning. Every seat in the pews of the
Baltimore Cathedral is filled. In the unusually wide
aisles, characteristic of Cathedrals, almost as many more
are standing. To be present is a coveted privilege. Per-
haps one half, certainly one quarter, of the crowd are
non-Catholics. It is difficult to detect who are Catholics
and who are not. All seem to be equally attentive and
reverent. It is the atmosphere of an assemblage unique
in America, perhaps anywhere in the world.
At one side of the sanctuary, upon his episcopal throne,
sits a slender man whose countenance denotes a combina-
tion of benignity and strength. The impression of him
grows on the observer. He wears the blood-red robe of a
Cardinal. Eyes are centered upon him. His expression
is serene. His movements are graceful. When he walks
he seems to glide, almost as if he were flying.
It is not alone that he is a Cardinal which causes the
congregation to rivet its attention upon him in the in-
tervals of the service. An indefinable influence, seem-
ingly of what has been called personal magnetism, pro-
ceeds from him. Every motion that he makes is watched
with intense, fascinated interest. His devotional spirit
spreads to others. Without speaking a word to them
directly, he is master of them.
843
844 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Now the time for the sermon arrives. Gibbons — for
it is he — rises. With the gliding motion of which his
easy movements give the appearance, he proceeds to the
pulpit and ascends the steps slowly. For the first time,
the many strangers in the congregation have a full view
of him. His face appears to be very pale in contrast
to his red robe. It is a face worthy of study under any
conditions. The features are clear-cut, almost as if
shaped by a sculptor seeking precision of outline. They
express keenness, intensity, force, and yet the overpower-
ing impression they convey is of saintliness.
The countenance seems all alight. The gaze from the
blue eyes is powerful. It appeals and commands at the
same time. The lithe body is so vibrant with a mysteri-
ous power that it almost seems poised for a spring.
Withal there is a background of calmness and self-pos-
session and of a simplicity of soul which utters an invo-
cation before the lips move.
There is a momentary pause. The stillness has an
element of suspense. Now, from the dominant figure
proceeds a voice as remarkable as the man. It is strong,
high pitched, yet with the sweetness of a perfectly toned
bell. In its general characteristics it is musical and pene-
trating. Every word — even every syllable — pierces the
atmosphere with singular clearness of enunciation. The
words are simple. They are designed to convey a message
which shall reach all and help all. The sentences, like the
words, are short and knit easily together. The unlearned,
even children, understand. The language and the elocu-
tion blend to produce clearness as of a mountain brook.
As the sermon proceeds, the voice gathers force but
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 846
never rises in cadences of the artificial devices of oratory.
The man has something to say. He has thoughts and he
wishes those thoughts to reach others without loss in
transmission. There are few gestures — perhaps none.
The mobile and powerful-countenance, upon which every
eye is fixed, supplies modulation and emphasis better than
any gestures.
But there is a force greater than the words, upon
which the preacher does not count, of which probably
he is not aware — certainly not fully aware. It is his
ever-present personality. People seem to be gripped
by something psychic. They are under a spell — the spell
of a presence — with which no exalted office could invest
any man. Even if he should utter the commonplace, it
would produce a profound impression.
There is little theology in what he says. Such phi-
losophy as he expounds is not that of the schoolmen. He
avoids abstruse processes of logic. There is an evident
design to shun any display of learning. The whole efltect
is of simplicity in which there is immense strength. He
believes that there is more religion in lifting a burden
from another's back than in exploring some new recess
of theological thought.
The hearer accepts the appeal as personal to himself.
It is thus framed, thus delivered. The preacher at times
seems to be speaking to the congregation as if they were
his intimates. He reasons with them, allows for their
own mental processes, and supplements them with his
own. The effect is that of inviting the assent of indi-
viduals to direct arguments gauged according to their
understanding. He has a habit of conceding points
846 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
which can be urged against any position which he takes.
At times he will remark: "I grant you that this is true,"
or "I do not deny that it is true." A close and dis-
criminating observer might remark that Gibbons stood
upon a plane of Christian humility not above that of
the humblest man in the audience; others, less disposed
to analyze the impressions of the moment, would say
that he had a marvelous facility of reaching directly into
the consciences and hearts of those who listened.
There is no reference to manuscript, though it is the
Cardinal's custom to prepare his sermons in his own hand-
writing. So tenacious is his memory that one or two re-
readings of a sermon are sufficient to implant its phrase-
ology in his mind for the time being. Now and then
there is a slight departure from the original language, but
it is a departure in words, not meaning, and is often
intentional, based upon impressions derived from the
congregation. If the circumstances have imposed especial
care in memorizing the sermon, the words may flow with
virtually complete fidelity to the prepared discourse.
The whole appearance to the congregation is of spon-
taneity.
The end of the sermon is reached. The occasional
hearer is surprised, for the Cardinal seldom preaches more
than twenty-five minutes, believing that short sermons
are the most effective. So potent has been his influence
upon the crowd that some persons, standing or sitting,
have scarcely moved a muscle since he began. They
have followed every sentence with intensity of concen-
tration. The simplicity of the thoughts has enabled them
to carry the thread of the discourse easily. Even a per-
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 847
son of poor mental powers could repeat a large part of
the sermon at once, if he were called upon to do so.
The message has sunk deep. It has been a part of the
personality of the preacher, and his personality has been
a part of it; and he has given it out to others.
The Catholic from another parish who has listened
exclaims: "If my priest could only preach like that!"
The Presbyterian says: "If my pastor could only preach
like that!" The Jew says: "If my rabbi could only
preach like that!" The composite impression is that the
Cardinal is the greatest preacher to whom the hearer has
listened.
Why*? Perhaps the most prominent reason is because
he has said something obviously needed as a help in daily
life. He has expounded simple truths of the Gospel.
Usually there is nothing doctrinal in the sermon, though
now and then, of course, the Cardinal takes a doctrinal
theme. What he says applies with equal force to any
Christian, indeed, in many cases, to any well disposed
man. He has used no terms of invective. There is no
uncharity, no bitterness. He wishes to heal without
inflicting pain. He illuminates the great truths of time
and eternity, answers doubts, calms the troubled mind,
dispenses sane counsel. The sermon has been practical.
He has set before the hearer no exceptionally difficult
standard — certainly not one that is impossible. He has
expounded every side of his subject so that the impres-
sion left is complete and satisfying. He has discarded
the technique of the pulpit that he may put the hearer
at ease.
This is Gibbons the preacher as he was in his splendid
848 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
prime, that long period between the ages of forty and
seventy years during which he preserved the fulness of
his powers as a speaker. After seventy there was a les-
sening in the wonderful carrying power of the voice
which, without being raised in tone, had been able to
penetrate the remotest corners of Cathedrals and large
public halls. It was a gradual lessening, scarcely per-
ceptible to those accustomed to listen to him. There was
also some diminution at times in his vigor of verbal
expression, but again this was so slight as to be observed
only by persons who heard him only seldom. He once
said:
"I can always manage to make my voice carry in-
doors in speaking, although I sometimes have trouble
in the open air. Early in life I was forced to give my-
self a severe training in elocution. My health was bad
and often I did not have the necessary strength to deliver
long discourses. But I found that by training my voice
in pronouncing each word distinctly, so that one would
not fall over another and confuse the auditor, I could
speak in a natural tone and be heard in a large church
or hall. If my health had been better, I might not have
taken the trouble to do this."
Gibbons' appearance on ecclesiastical occasions when
he did not preach and was able to center fully upon his
devotions in church must have caused many to think
that here at last was a saint in real life. His pale,
spiritual countenance seemed to show forth a heavenly
serenity as if illumined by an inner light. This was
accentuated by the thin, clasped hands, the bowed head,
the slightly bent form and the marvelous grace of poise
and carriage. The whole aspect of the figure was sweetly
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 849
appealing. It was of one come to bless, but never to
condemn. The soul of the man, detached from the stress
of the world, seemed to speak. Catholics, Protestants,
Jews, men of any faith and no faith, felt a reverence that
spread through the congregation like a mysterious thrill
which none could escape.
The crowds which assembled when he preached in the
Cathedral were the wonder of Baltimore. No such had
ever flocked to any other church there, or probably else-
where in America. It was easy to understand why, when
he left his own city, thousands should wish to hear him
because of his distinguished name, but at home his ser-
mons were far from a novelty, because for more than two
score years he preached in the Cathedral once a month
and any person who wished to be present could do so if
he arrived in time to enter the building with the first of
the crowd.
The Cathedral is planted upon a broad hill surrounded
by ample lawns and wide streets. On Sundays when Gib-
bons preached, the near-by streets were crowded as if for
a mass meeting in the heat of a political campaign. Men,
women, and children stood in long lines, seeking an op-
portunity to enter. By Gibbons' direction the doors were
thrown open to the general public a few minutes after
the service had begun. Pews then only partly filled with
the families and guests of their holders were quickly
crowded as the multitude flowed in, and the aisles were
packed to the utmost limit consistent with the general
safety. Outside the doors hundreds, often thousands,
who were disappointed, turned away, resolving to come
again at an early opportunity.
850 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The number of Protestants who were drawn to hear
him was great at all times. Many of them preferred
the pulpit deliverances of Gibbons to such an extent that
they pasted copies of them in scrapbooks and retained
them for years as a permanent guide in the multitude of
difficulties with which his homilies dealt.
Protestants were sure that they would not be offended
by anything which he would say. In his Discourses and
Sermons^ a volume of considerable size, published by him
late in life, there are fifty-five titles, of which only six
are doctrinal. Their general tenor can be comprehended
from the following examples:
"Am I My Brother's Keeper?"
"Jesus Christ Our Friend" ;
"The Race for an Unfading 'Crown" ;
"Eternal Happiness and Conditions for Attaining It" ;
"The Study and Imitation of Christ";
"Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles" ;
"The Blessings of Christian Faith";
"Christ, the Only Enduring Name in History and the
Great Reformer of Society" ;
"Why We Should Rejoice";
"Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law" ;
"Christian Manhood" ;
"Prayer, Source of Light, Comfort and Strength";
"This Man Receiveth Sinners" ;
"A Personal Providence";
"The Tribunal of Mercy."
As to the length of sermons he wrote in the preface
to the volume :
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 851
"The author believes that their brevity will also com-
mend them to the reader ; for long discourses are usually
tedious and fatiguing. They weigh heavily on the mind
as a surfeit of food palls upon the appetite; while short
sermons, like a frugal and nutritious meal, are easily di-
gested and assimilated."
Gibbons' greatest sermon was, of course, ''The Faith
of Our Fathers,'' the most popular and potent discourse
framed by any cleric of modern times, which has had an
influence upon hundreds of thousands of lives in all
civilized countries. In that work, as in almost every
sermon that he delivered, he was solicitous to avoid
arguing over the heads of those whom he addressed. He
was deeply versed in theology and philosophy and in his
student days at St. Mary's Seminary his superior excel-
lence in the latter branch of learning had been a subject
of especial commendation. Throughout his life he kept
up with the latest developments in these two fields, and
with his rare mental equipment it was evident that had
he wished to lean toward them in his churchmanship he
would have ranked high in them.
Recognizing both the absolute need and the practical
value of theology and philosophy, he yet turned from
them in his customary methods of appeal in the pulpit.
He believed that others supplied enough of them. For
himself, he would reach down for the simple things and
exhibit them for the benefit of men who might not be
able to comprehend anything else. His sermons, there-
fore, lacked that profundity of presentation which would
entitle them to be rated highly as works of theology;
but it is doubtful if the traveler through this vale of tears,
852 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
seeking direct comfort from a minister of God in the
trials and difficulties which he must inevitably encounter,
can find in the discourses of any other man a more accept-
able or practical guide than in those of Gibbons. If it
be true that he attained this goal, his work was crowned
with all the success that he wished for it. It was the one
end which he sought consistently. His aim was to remove
the elementary obstacles. He felt that by this means
he could reach masses immensely outnumbering those
whom the refined and higher processes of reasoning might
win to the fold.
Gibbons loved to preach. This was not in the sense
of deriving pleasure from the exercise of his powers as
an orator, but in the sense of fulfilling one of his fore-
most duties. During the many years when he was a
Cardinal, he might have found ample justification in his
own mind for devoting his time to the weighty affairs of
administration which pressed upon him and preaching
only at rare intervals. But amid all his preoccupations
he considered his duties as a priest foremost. He con-
tinued to visit the sick, to console the bereaved, even to
hear confessions at times. It was not consistent with his
purposes to neglect the preaching duty of the priesthood,
no matter how great his elevation in the Hierarchy. No
duties connected with service to the Church appeared to
be uncongenial to him; the humbler they were, the hap-
pier he seemed to be in performing them.
Some of his pulpit utterances related to public topics
of a general nature; but these were a small fraction of
the whole. Whenever he introduced them he gave a re-
ligious discourse first, and presented the correlative topic
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 853
toward the end. For instance, in a sermon upon "Am I
My Brother's Keeper"?" he concluded with a vigorous
appeal against the continuation of the sweat shop evil in
Baltimore, as giving a practical aspect to his main theme.
Beginning by citing instances from the Bible of brotherly
love and charity, including the story of the Good Samari-
tan, he proceeded to say that his aim was not to commend
charity only as an abstraction but, "to set before you a
special class of persons in this city that you may help to
improve their condition, to redress their grievances and
enable them to earn by their industry an honest and com-
fortable livelihood." He dealt with current conditions
in sermons on topics such as divorce, Sunday observance
and marriage, always on a religious basis. Of all the
references to subjects of this nature which he introduced
in his sermons, by far the largest number were exhorta-
tions in behalf of loyalty to country.
On the subject of discussing public questions in the
pulpit, he thus defined his views in The Ambassador of
Christ: ^
"As the minister of Christ is preeminently the friend
and father of the people, he cannot be indifferent to any
of the social, political, and economic questions affecting
the interests and happiness of the nation. The relations
of Church and State, the duties and prerogatives of the
citizen, the evils of political corruption and usurpation,
the purification of the ballot-box, the relative privileges
and obligations of labor and capital, the ethics of trade
and commerce, the public desecration of the Lord's Day,
popular amusements, temperance, the problem of the
colored and Indian races, female suffrage, divorce, social-
*Pp. 262-266.
854 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ism, and anarchy, — these and kindred subjects are vital,
and often burning questions on which hinge the peace
and security of the Commonwealth.
"Politics has a moral, as well as a civil, aspect; the
clergyman is a social, as well as a religious, reformer; a
patriot as well as a preacher, and he knows that the
permanence of our civic institutions rests on the intelli-
gence and the virtue of the people. He has at heart the
temporal, as well as the spiritual, prosperity of those
committed to his care. They naturally look up to him
as a guide and teacher. His education, experience, and
sacred character give weight to his words and example.
"There is scarcely a social or economic movement of
reform on foot, no matter how extravagant or Utopian,
that has not some element of justice to recommend it to
popular favor. If the scheme is abandoned to the control
of fanatics, demagogues, or extremists, it will deceive
the masses, and involve them in greater misery. Such
living topics need discriminating judges to separate the
wheat from the chaff.
"And who is more fitted to handle these questions than
God's ambassador, whose conservative spirit frowns upon
all intemperate innovation, and whose Christian sym-
pathies prompt him to advocate for his suffering brethren
every just measure for the redress of grievances, and the
mitigation of needless misery*?
"The timely interposition of the minister of peace
might have helped to check many a disastrous popular
inundation, by watching its course, and diverting it into
a safe channel, before it overspread the country. . . .
"The reigning Pontiff, Leo XIII, in his usual masterly
manner and luminous style, has, in a series of Encyclicals,
enlarged on the great social and economical questions
of the day. In his Encyclical of January, 1895, ^^'
dressed to the Hierarchy of the United States, His Holi-
ness says:
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 855
" 'As regards civil affairs, experience has shown how
important it is that the citizens should be upright and
virtuous. In a free State, unless justice be generally
cultivated, unless the people be repeatedly and diligently
urged to observe the precepts and laws of the Gospel,
liberty itself may be pernicious. Let those of the clergy,
therefore, who are occupied with the instruction of the
people, treat plainly this topic of the duties of citizens^
so that all may understand and feel the necessity in po-
litical life of conscientiousness^ self-restraint^ and in-
tegrity; for that cannot be lawful in public^ which is
unlawful in private affairs.^
"Of course, the kingdom of God and the salvation of
souls are the habitual theme of the minister of religion,
the burden of his life-long solicitude; and the subjects to
which I have referred, are, in the nature of things, ex-
ceptional and incidental. They should be handled, more-
over, with great prudence and discretion, with a mind
free from prejudice and partisan spirit, and in the sole
interests of Christian charity, social ordei*, and public
tranquillity."
In The Ambassador of Christ"^ he also gave his own
code for the effective preacher. He wrote thus for the
guidance of priests :
"First. In every sermon you deliver, have a definite
object in view, such as the vindication of some special
truth, the advocacy of some virtue, or the denunciation
of some vice. Let every sentence in the discourse have
some relation to the central idea, and help to illustrate
and enforce it.
"Second. Borrow as freely as possible your thoughts
and even your expressions from the pages of Scripture,
especially of the New Testament.
Tp. 281-283.
856 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Third. Master your subject to the best of your
ability. Commit to memory at least the leading facts
logically arranged.
"Fourth. Be intensely earnest in the delivery of your
discourse. Thus your hearers will be convinced that your
heart is in your work. They will be in sympathy with
you, they will catch your spirit, and will be warmed by
the sacred flame issuing from your mouth.
"The Gospel message conduces most to edification and
spiritual profit when conveyed through the medium of
direct and simple language. High-sounding phrases may
tickle the ear, and gain admiration for the speaker, but
they will not excite compunction of heart in the hearers.
Affectation of style and manner, or straining for effect,
makes a preacher unnatural and pedantic. It is a desecra-
tion of the pulpit.
"Plain speech that needs no effort to be understood
is not only necessary for the masses, but is the most ac-
ceptable even to cultivated minds. Men listen to sermons
not for the sake of abstract information, but for religious
and moral improvement. The true aim of a discourse
is not so much to enlighten the mind as to move the heart,
not so much to convince us of our duty as to impel us
to fulfil it ; therefore, the appeals best calculated to rouse
the conscience are straightforward and to the point, un-
encumbered by ponderous phraseology. This is genuine
eloquence, because it fulfils the legitimate end of preach-
ing, namely, the spiritual progress of the hearers.
"The most sublime thoughts may be embodied in the
plainest words. What is more elevated in sentiment
than Paul's exhortation on charity, and yet what lan-
guage is more clear and transparent than his? Any
mental exertion required to follow the preacher and seize
his thoughts is painful to the audience, and chilling to
the spirit of devotion. Daniel Webster used to complain
of this kind of discourses. It involved too severe a strain
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 857
on the intellect to be in harmony with the spirit of wor-
ship. In the House of God, he said that he wanted to
meditate 'upon the simple verities, and the undoubted
facts of religion,' and not on mere abstractions or specu-
lations."
It is doubtful if the sermons of any other eminent
preacher of recent times have been so plentifully inter-
spersed with quotations from the Bible as those of Gib-
bons. Indeed, considerable portions of his arguments
were not infrequently phrased entirely in the language of
Scripture. The Bible was his constant companion.
Sometimes in gatherings where there were clergymen a
copy would be desired and no one was able to produce it
but he. He would take it out and read it at numerous
intervals of the day, when the opportunity presented
itself, and his gifts of memory enabled him to imprint
large parts of it verbatim upon his mind.
In a sermon on spiritual reading ^ he said that the
Christian, in order to fight successfully the foes which
assail him in the world, had need of strong religious disci-
pline. The Bible was to the soldier of Christ what a
manual of military tactics was to the soldier serving an
earthly government. "The timely remembrance of an
appropriate sentence of Holy Writ," he said, was "a
tower of strength in the hour of temptation or despon-
dency. But we cannot conjure up these pious phrases
unless, we are familiar with the sacred text and it is only
by habitual perusal of the word of God that we can
familiarize ourselves with it." He continued:
"When the demon of swelling pride and vain glory
'Discourses and Sermons, pp. 143-154.
858 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
assails you, let your battle-cry be the words of the royal
prophet; 'Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy
name give glory.' When the spirit of avarice haunts
you, let your antidote be the saying of our Lord : 'What
doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?' When the demon of unhallowed desires
endeavors to defile your soul, devoutly recall the words
of Christ: 'Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall
see God'; or the words of the Patriarch Joseph: 'How
can I sin in the presence of my God I' When tempted
with impatience on account of the loss of goods, health
or relatives, say with Job : 'The Lord gave, the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'
"It was thus our Savior acted when tempted by the
devil, to teach us how to conduct ourselves in similar
circumstances. When the demon tempted Him to glut-
tony, our Lord answered by quoting an appropriate text
of Holy Scripture : 'It is written, not on bread alone doth
man live, but by every word that proceedeth from the
mouth of God.' When the devil tried to persuade Him
to perform an unnecessary miracle, by precipitating Him-
self from the pinnacle of the temple, and thus to tempt
the Providence of God, Christ answered in the words of
Holy Writ: 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'
And when prompted to vainglory, He again replied:
'Begone, Satan, for it is written: The Lord thy God
shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve.'
"The Word of God is the most fearless preacher you
can listen to. Your most intimate friend will hesitate to
remind you of your faults, from a sense of delicacy and
from fear of being considered over censorious. Even the
ministers of God, though they are commanded by the
Holy Ghost to preach the word, to reprove, entreat and
rebuke with authority, are cautious not to lay bare the
diseases of the soul in their naked deformity, from a
dread of suggesting evil thoughts to the innocent, or of
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 859
giving personal offense to the guilty, or of shocking the
sensibilities of their hearers generally. But the inspired
volume is never ashamed to tell us the plain, unvarnished
truth, for people can never suspect its authors of being
personal.
"Moreover, you cannot usually hear the living voice
of a preacher more than once or twice a week. His words
pass away, but the written word remains. You have
always the Sacred Book at your call. You can ponder
again over a page which has impressed you, and you can
imprint it on your heart and memory."
In a sermon on prayer * he spoke with the widest Chris-
tian brotherhood to all, saying:
"Humble and earnest prayer (for this is the only
sort of prayer worth considering) is a source of light to
the mind, of comfort to the heart, and of strength to the
will. By prayer we ascend like Moses to the holy moun-
tain. There God removes the scales from our eyes. He
dispels the clouds of passion, of prejudice, or of igno-
rance that enveloped us. He enlarges our mental vision.
He sheds a flood of light upon us that enables us to see
things as they really are.
"Standing on that mountain, we see the shortness of
time, and how it passes like a shadow, and we see the
immeasurable length of eternity. We are penetrated
with a sense of the greatness of God alone, and the little-
ness of man, or if we perceive anything attractive in
him, it is because he is shining with borrowed light. We
observe how paltry and trifling are all things earthly,
since they are passing away, and like the beloved John,
we get a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem.
"Outside of prayer, indeed, we acknowledge these
truths; but it is only in prayer that we fully realize them
* Discourses and Sermons, pp. 241-250.
860 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and relish them, and that the words of the Apostle are
brought home to us : 'We have not here a lasting city, but
we seek one that is to come.'
"Prayer ... is a sovereign remedy against dejection
of spirits: 'Is anyone sad among you, let him pray,' says
the Apostle.
"How can we, as children, approach our heavenly
Father, the Father of mercies and the God of all con-
solation, without feeling a sense of security and con-
fidence! How can we draw near to Jesus Christ, the
Sun of Justice, without experiencing the warmth of His
heavenly rays ! How can we fervently pray to the Holy
Spirit, who is called the Paraclete or Comforter, without
having our hearts dilated and enlarged?
"What is the chief cause of our unrest? Is it not our
excessive anxiety about our temporal affairs'? Now in
prayer, God gives us grace not only to restrain our in-
ordinate ambition, but even to curb and moderate our
laudable desires. Those earthly things that we so eagerly
crave appear small and trifling when weighed in the
scales of the sanctuary, and the sufferings we endure
seem short and momentary when measured by the
standard of eternity.
"We are told in the Gospel that while Jesus was pray-
ing in the garden of Gethsemani, 'there appeared to Him
an angel strengthening Him.' What a striking symbol
was this heavenly messenger of the angel of consolation
whom the Lord sends to us in prayer to sweeten the bitter
chalice which He puts to our lips!
"In communion with God, our will is endowed with
fresh energy and our heart is strengthened to bear the
adversities of life. The man of prayer can say with
the Apostle: 'I can do all things in Him that strength-
eneth me.' "
Divine clemency was a favorite theme of Gibbons.
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 861
In a sermon on the subject "This man receiveth sinners"
he said : ®
"How immense is the distance between God's treat-
ment of a repentant sinner and man's conduct towards
an offending brother I And how consoling is the thought
that in the all-important affair of salvation, sinners have
to deal, not with an earthly tribunal where, in the name
of justice, the culprit is often overwhelmed with pas-
sionate denunciations, but that they are presented before
a heavenly Judge, who has all the clemency and mag-
nanimity of a God.
"In order to obtain forgiveness from the Almighty,
and to be restored to the liberty and privileges of the
children of God; in order to be reinstated as citizens of
Heaven and heirs of His eternal kingdom, you are not
first subjected to an indefinite period of probation to test
your sincerity. You are not habitually taunted for your
past offences. The only condition of pardon that God
requires is a contrite heart, sincerely repentant of past
transgressions.
"If you can say with the sorrow of David: T have
sinned against the Lord,' quicker than the lightning from
heaven does God send you a full pardon in these words :
'The Lord also hath taken away thy sin. Thou shalt not
die,' O I well may we exclaim with the royal prophet,
when he was offered a choice of punishment from God
or from men: 'It is better that I should fall into the
hands of the Lord (for His mercies are many) than into
the hands of men.' "
In a sermon on "What is a Saint*?" he emphasized a
point upon which he often dwelt, that the obstacles to
the Christian life are exaggerated in the minds of many.
He said: ^
"Discourses and Sermons, pp. 312-321.
"^Retrospect of Fifty Years, Vol. II, pp. 249-261.
862 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"There are some who imagine that a Saint is one of
whom we read in ancient history and who belongs to an
almost extinct species, some ante-diluvian who flourished
like the giants of former ages, or King Arthur's Knights
of the Round Table, but whose race is well-nigh run out,
and whose place is now rarely found on earth.
"No, thank God, the generation of Saints is not ex-
tinct. They exist in our day. They are to be found in
this city and under our own eyes. They are in every
congregation of Baltimore. They sanctify their homes
by the integrity of their character and by their domestic
virtues. 'Their lives are hidden with Christ in God.'
"And these noble spirits are as unconscious of their
increase in holiness, as they are of their physical growth;
this is all the better for them. It is only when they begin
to view themselves with complacency, and to have an
exalted opinion of themselves that they take a step back-
ward, and are in danger of imitating the Pharisee who
boasted that he was not like the rest of men.
"There are others again who entertain the notion that
to be Saints persons must spend half their time in prayer,
the other half in corporal mortification. This mode of
life would suit very well a holy anchoret, or women like
the devout Anna, 'who departed not from the temple, but
by fastings and prayers worshipped night and day.'
But it would not befit the bulk of Christians whose daily
life is devoted to secular and domestic pursuits, for these
duties cannot be omitted without violating conscience
and deranging the good order of society or of the family.
"A man who would spend in church the time which
should be consecrated to his business affairs would be
apt to bring religious exercises into disrepute by per-
forming them out of due season. It is true indeed that
Mary, who was given to contemplation, is praised by the
Master for having chosen the better part, but it is equally
true that her sister Martha, who was occupied in house-
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 863
hold affairs, had a share in the esteem and benefaction
of our Lord.
"There are others who picture to themselves a Saint
as an individual of a sad or gloomy disposition, of a
melancholy and dejected aspect like the knight of the sor-
rowful figure. Our Saviour gives us a different view of
a servant of God. He tells us that even in our penitential
acts we should maintain a cheerful demeanor. 'When
ye fast,' he says, 'be not like the hypocrites sad, for they
disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to
fast. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and
wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast but
to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth
in secret will repay thee.'
"The Saints are conspicuous for habitual cheerfulness,
because they have an upright conscience, and cheerful-
ness is the fruition of a good conscience, or of a soul at
peace with God and men.
"What then is a Saint? A Saint is one who keeps
the commandments of God and the precepts of the
Church, and discharges with fidelity the duties of his
state of life. Another characteristic of a Saint is that he
bears with Christian fortitude and patience the trials of
life, whether imposed on him by the inscrutable visita-
tions of Providence, or inflicted by the malice of man,
or resulting from the infirmities of his nature."
His unfailing belief in a personal Providence was thus
expressed in a sermon upon that subject:^
"How delightful the assurance that no injury can pos-
sibly befall you against the will of Him whom no power
can resist: that God will make the very malice of your
enemies to serve as instruments to exalt and glorify you,
and that your momentary discomfitures will be so many
''Discourses and Sermons, pp. 346-355.
86* LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
stepping-stones to your final victory. Tor, we know that
to them that love God all things work together unto good,
to such as according to His purpose are called to be
saints.' And in order to be assured of God's providential
protection, the only condition required is that you rebel
not against His holy will, but heartily abandon yourself
to His good pleasure and faithfully observe His law.
"I appeal, my dear brethren, to your own experience.
Review your past lives. Examine the chain of incidents
in the light of faith, and are you not forced to admit
that those vicissitudes of health and sickness, those alter-
nations of joy and sorrow, of prosperity and adversity,
were but the handmaids of Providence, the frowns and
caresses of a loving Father leading you on to your desti-
nation*? And thus the testimony of your own observa-
tion confirms the voice of revelation, saying that 'to them
that love God, all things work together unto good.'
"Let me now refer to a popular objection against
a personal Providence. Honor, riches and health, you
will say, are gifts of God. Why, then, do the wicked so
frequently possess them in abundance, while the righteous
are so often afflicted by contempt, poverty and suffering^
Why is the innocent Abel slain, while the fratricide,
Cain, is allowed to roam the earth? Why is the impious
Achab dwelling in an ivory palace, while Elias is hunted
like a criminal *? Why is Herod exalted on a throne, and
John is immured in a dungeon? Why is Nero ruling an
empire, while Paul is languishing in chains'? Is it not
reasonable to expect that the great Disposer of events
should show partiality to His friends rather than to His
(enemies?
"To this objection I will answer that, to judge
adequately of God's Providence towards us, we must not
restrict ourselves to a partial or one-sided view of man's
destiny, but we must contemplate him in the whole cycle
of his existence. We cannot judge of the success of a
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 865
race until the contestants reach the goal. We must re-
member that man's soul is immortal, that his duration
will be eternal, and that the day of final reckoning will
come only at the termination of the present life. Why,
then, impeach the justice of our Creator if He permits the
impious to prosper for a time, and defers rewarding His
servants until the close of their earthly pilgrimage*? 'One
day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day.' And what are even a thousand years
in comparison with eternity^"
Gibbons' habitual cheerfulness, even joyousness in per-
sonal demeanor, whether exhibited to President, King or
gamin, was based upon inward faith. In a sermon upon
"Why we should rejoice" he said: ^
"A joyous disposition amid the vicissitudes of daily
life, I regard as the highest form of Christian philosophy.
The cheerfulness which I have in mind is the fruit of
innocence and charity, and therefore to enjoy this gift
we must have a pure heart before God, and the milk of
human kindness for our fellow-beings.
"This cheerfulness does not consist in fitful transports,
but in an habitual serenity of mind. It does not usually
explode in loud laughter and boisterous mirth. It is not
a sudden flash which is rapidly extinguished. It is rather
a steady flame flowing from a heart that is filled with the
fire of the Holy Ghost.
"The cheerful man is not much disturbed by the
changes and accidents of daily life. He rides upon the
storm. He rises superior to adversity. He is borne on
the wings of hope and love. But the man of a gloomy
and fretful temperament is oppressed by the burden oi
life, and sinks under it.
"The cheerful man not only has sunshine in his own
heart, but he diffuses it around him. When he enters a
''Discourses and Sermons, pp. 23-32.
866 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
room, the company feel the warmth of his presence, and
their hearts expand with pleasure. He exercises on their
spirits the same influence that the electric lights, when
they are turned on in this Cathedral, produce upon your
senses. The gloomy man, on the contrary, repels them,
and casts a dark shadow over them.
"O my brethren, what is wealth or honor to man!
What is a kingdom to him, if the kingdom of his soul
is dark and desolate, and overshadowed by the clouds of
sadness and despair I . . .
"And now let me offer you in conclusion a few prac-
tical suggestions. First of all, endeavor to establish the
reign of joy and sunshine in your own heart. To accom-
plish this blessed result, three conditions are necessary.
First. You must have a pure and upright conscience
before God. Second. You must maintain an habitual
spirit of benevolence towards your fellowman; for you
can not have serenity in your heart so long as it is
clouded by resentment towards your neighbor. Third.
Keep yourself free from inordinate attachment to any-
thing earthly. . . . Once you have planted the blessings
of joy within you, let its beams radiate throughout your
household."
A discourse in the Baltimore Cathedral on "Solicitude
of Mind" was an illustration of the practical helpfulness
which Gibbons sought to bestow in most of his sermons.
He said : ^
"I do not pretend to read your thoughts, my brethren,
but I venture to say that there is scarcely a member of
the congregation before me who is not agitated by some
vain hope or fear. Each of you has his daily round of
cares, which flow and ebb like the tide. As soon as one
care subsides another rises in your breast in endless suc-
cession.
" Diso curse and Sermons, pp. 418-426.
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 867
"Those of you who are more favored in your temporal
condition may be preoccupied by the rise and fall in
stocks and bonds and the fluctuations in the market.
Those of you who are in more modest circumstances are
solicitous about your future wants for the decent sup-
port of life. Others are anxious about the result of a law-
suit, or of some impending event, on the issue of which
you imagine your future happiness depends. Some of
you, again, are fretful and uneasy regarding your own
health, or about the recovery of a sick friend or of a
member of your household.
"Now, the religion of Christ, which was established to
prepare us for bliss in the world to come, contributes at
the same time to our happiness in this life, as far as it can
be attained in our present condition. And as cares and
solicitudes are a bar to peace and tranquillity, our Lord
suggests to us by His inspired writers and by His own
voice the motives and means of banishing those cares, or
of lessening their hurtful influence and of lightening their
burden. If Christ will not subdue the storm that assails
us He will at least help us to ride upon the waves of ad-
versity, as He enabled Peter to walk upon the sea of
Galilee.
"St. Paul says: 'Be not solicitous about anything
(observe that he makes no exception of any cause whatso-
ever), but by prayer and supplication let your petitions
be made known to God.' Instead of consuming ourselves
with vain fears, he exhorts us to lift up our hearts to
Heaven for light and strength.
"St. Peter expresses the same thought in these few but
touching words: 'Cast your care upon the Lord, for He
will sustain you.' Deposit the bundle of your solicitudes
in the arms of your Heavenly Father. He will dispose of
them.
" 'Which of you,' says our Lord, 'by thinking, can add
to his stature one cubit?' What good will all this fretful-
868 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ness and gnawing care do you*? It will not add one inch
to your height, or one ounce to your weight, or one cent
to your wealth, or one jot to your happiness, or one day
to your span of life. That excessive anxiety to which
you yield weakens the intellect, dissipates the energies
of the will and incapacitates you for the due performance
of your duties, while an abiding trust in God enables you
to work with a concentrated mind and a hearty good will.
"You believe in the existence of a superintending
Power that watches over the affairs of men and of na-
tions. You know that the same Divine Wisdom that
numbers and names the stars of the firmament counts
the very hairs of your head. You know that the same
Omnipotent God, who supports and nourishes the angels
in Heaven, feeds also the worms of the earth.
"The upshot of Christ's teaching is this: You should
be active and industrious without excessive solicitude,
diligent and laborious without anxiety. Labor today as
if all depended upon your own right arm and brain;
trust tomorrow as if all depended upon the Providence of
God. Use today, for it is yours; trouble not yourselves
about the morrow, for it belongs to God ; it is still in the
womb of futurity and may never be bom to you.
" 'Be not solicitous for tomorrow, for tomorrow will
be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil
thereof.' Do not derange the order of Divine Providence
by superadding to the cares of today the solicitudes of
tomorrow, which are often imaginary or magnified by the
imagination. Like a skilful general, concentrate your
powers on the formidable enemy that confronts you now.
Do not scatter your forces by striving at the same time
to encounter an enemy yet afar off, who may never
approach you.
"Endeavor to pass through cares as it were without
care. While it may be impossible to prevent the mists of
perplexity and anxiety from hovering about the imagina-
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 869
tion and clouding the senses, do not permit these vapors
to ascend to the higher and more serene atmosphere where
the soul is enthroned and communes in undisturbed peace
with its Maker.
"Remember that the moral Ruler of the world holds
the reins of government, which He never surrenders. So
long as He guides and controls the chariot that carries
you and your fortunes, happen what will, you have
nothing to fear, provided you put your trust in Him.
'Hope in the Lord, and do good, and He will give you
the desires of your heart.'
"Be not solicitous about anything, but by prayer and
supplication let your petitions be made known to God;
and may the peace of God, which surpasseth all under-
standing, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Gibbons gave his forecast of one aspect of the future
life in a sermon preached in the Baltimore Cathedral on
"Social and Domestic Joys of Heaven." As he looked
back on the hundreds of discourses which he delivered
from the pulpit, this had been one of his favorites. His
text was John xiv. 2-3 : "In my Father's house there are
many mansions: I go to prepare a place for you."
Saying that the whole court of heaven was represented
in the Bible as one family, God Himself being the Father
of the household, he proceeded : ^^
"From this picture of heaven we see at once that the
Saints will not live in a state of isolation or seclusion;
they will not dwell apart, standing like statues on a ped-
estal ; they will not be in a condition of mental abstrac-
tion, so absorbed in the contemplation of God as to be
unconscious of each other's presence : they will enjoy, on
^Retrospect, Vol. II, pp. 262-278.
870 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the contrary, not only the vision of their Creator, but
the happy society also of one another.
"Man is by nature a social being. God has planted
in his breast an irresistible desire to consort and converse
with his fellow-man. And as Boethius remarks, our hap-
piness is increased when we can share it with others.
Indeed the most frightful punishment you can inflict on
any one is to deprive him of all human fellowship, or to
condemn him to solitary confinement.
"Now in heaven the essential characteristics of our
nature are not destroyed but preserved. Grace will not
supplant nature. It will supplement and perfect it. And
therefore man will remain in heaven as he is now on earth
— a social being."
"We are assured by the Scriptures and the writings of
the fathers that the blessed will recognize one another in
the City of God . . . and the particular affection they
will have for their kindred and relatives will in no wise
violate the law of universal charity, just as Christ's
predilection for His mother, for the Apostles and the
Baptist did not lessen in the slightest degree his love for
the host of heaven. . . . Death shall not erase from
your minds the memory of those with whom you were as-
sociated here and who shared in your joys and sorrows on
earth. ... It is repugnant to our religious sense that a
devoted Christian family who were united here below
would be separated in the life to come."
The recollection of the occasional animosities that
cloud life on earth, he declared, would not mar the
peace of the family in the City of God, but "the memory
of those estrangements will serve rather to augment your
joys, because you will be conscious that these moral
wounds have been healed by the blood of the Lamb, never
CHARACTERISTICS AS A PREACHER 871
to return." He dwelt upon the meetings of friends in the
future life, saying:
"How ineffable will be the delight of friends in heaven
whose fellowships will meet with the approving smile of
the great King, and who will have no fear of being ever
separated by estrangement or death."
While Gibbons shunned many of the devices of oratory,
he rose not infrequently to heights in his sermons which
produced the effect of masterful eloquence upon his
hearers. His perorations were sometimes highly effective,
especially in view of his delivery, the public speaker's
summum bonum according to the precept of Demosthenes.
Even in these, however, he clung to his general plan of
clearness and simplicity, together with the conveyance of
helpful meaning. The following passage at the close of
one of his sermons, on "Descent of the Holy Ghost on the
Apostles' " will serve as an illustration : ^^
"God of all consolation, who comfortest us in all our
tribulations, let the light of Thy countenance shine upon
us. Dispel from us all clouds of gloom and sadness.
Give us Thy blessed peace, that triple peace which Thou
didst bestow on Thy Apostles — peace with God, peace
with our neighbor, peace with ourselves. Give us that
peace of God which 'surpasseth all understanding,'
which 'the world cannot give' ; that peace which will keep
our hearts serene and tranquil amid the storms of life, so
that we may rejoice with exceeding great joy in the midst
of our tribulations.
"Reign over every faculty of our soul. Reign over
our mind, that we may daily meditate on Thy mercies.
" Discourses and Sermons, p. 287.
872 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Reign over our will that we may ever love Thee. Reign
over our memory that we may be mindful of Thy past
favors. Reign over our imagination, and the whole range
of our thoughts. Reign over us in time and in eternity."
Another example of the same kind is the following
from a sermon on "Reflections on Death" : ^^
"Why, then, should you have a morbid dread of death,
soldiers of the Cross*? Let the infidel fear death, who
hopes in his heart that there is no God. Let the obdurate
sinner fear death, who offends the majesty of Heaven by
his sins. Let the slave of lust and avarice fear death,
which will be the end of his pleasures and the beginning
of his miseries. . . .
"But as for you, why should you dread death? Has
not your Master said: 'O death, I will be thy death'?'
Has He not conquered the king of terrors by His own
death and glorious resurrection? Has He not demon-
strated by word and example that death is not the termi-
nation of your existence? Has He not lifted up the veil
and given you an insight into that bright and boundless
realm beyond the grave? Why should you fear to pass
through the gate which leads to the regions of bliss
eternal ?
"With what delight does the prisoner hear the huge
bolts of his dungeon door drawn aside, and listen to the
messenger of the law reading the sentence of his deliver-
ance I With what joy he bounds into the light of day
and breathes the air of freedom and hastens to his father's
home I And should you not rejoice in that day which will
release you from the prison of the body, reveal to you
the light of Heaven, restore you to the glorious liberty
of the children of God, and enable you to enter the home
of your eternal Father?"
^Discourses and Sermons, pp. 435-36.
CHAPTER XLVIII
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS
Gibbons the reader sits in his study in the archiepis-
copal residence in Baltimore. He has just finished his
frugal dinner. It is seven o'clock or a little later. The
work of the day is over. He wears his gray dressing
gown, reaching almost to his feet. Upon his head is th«
red zuchetto or skull cap which a Cardinal always wears.
He smokes his second cigar of the day — his only sem-
blance of luxury. It is far from being a costly cigar.
Wealthy friends have begged him until they are wearied
to permit them to supply him always with the finest
Havanas made to his order, but he refuses. He will use
in works of benevolence the money which such cigars rep-
resent, if they wish, but will never smoke luxurious cigars.
He has drawn up to his desk a cane seat armchair with-
out rockers, containing a leather cushion, and sits half-
crouched in it, his eyes peering intently at the pages of
the book which he is reading. Sometimes he puts another
chair in front of him and elevates his slippered feet upon
it for comfort.
Upon his desk is a "student's lamp," burning oil, of a
type familiar in his younger days before the development
of the better types of gas and electric lamps. It emits a
good light and he will have no other. Here again wealthy
873
874 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
friends have attempted to interpose, but in vain. One
of them, after many efforts, obtained permission to equip
the house with electric lights and even put an excellent
light of that kind on the Cardinal's desk, but after a fe>y
days he discarded it and resumed the use of the old oil
lamp.
Upon the top of the desk, surmounting it, is a large
crucifix. The papers upon the desk and in its pigeon
holes are in fairly good order, for the Cardinal is dis-
posed to be neat and systematic in such things. Around
the walls are crowded bookshelves, and there are more
books in his simple bedroom adjoining. These are the
Cardinal's favorites. The main archiepiscopal library is
downstairs, in a wing of the house especially built for it,
but the Cardinal always reads in his study. In his own
special collection the Bible, in various languages and edi-
tions, holds first place.
Thus the Cardinal appeared while enjoying his nightly
diversion and thus his friends saw him in a long period
of years. From seven to nine o'clock every evening he
was accustomed to read constantly, unless interrupted by
one of the few intimates who had access to his studj.
Some of these were Bishops; others priests; still others
Catholic laymen; and they also included Protestants and
Jews. The personal tie was the one that prevailed in
these cases.
The Cardinal read fast. His extraordinary memory
enabled him to retain everything that he wished to retain
from the pages, even though his eyes raced along the lines.
He possessed the faculty almost of reading by sentences,
groups of sentences or even pages. One glance did much.
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 875
His powers of perception were perhaps unsurpassed by
those of any man of his time; persons who observed this
phenomenon in him — for it was a phenomenon — were
ready to say that they were unequaled. In his long life
his range of reading packed his mind like a great store
house with an immense variety of exact information.
He read for style as well as facts. The Cardinal en-
joyed style. His taste in this respect was that of an
English purist, and his standards were the best classical
models of the language which he spoke in daily life. In
America, he believed, there was too much haste in the
production of literature, but many English writers took
more time and turned out more artistic products. He
liked the smooth, flowing sentence, a combination of sim-
plicity, strength and grace.
His range was the very widest among good books.
He kept up at all times with publications relating to the
Catholic Church and the subject of religion generally,
including theology, philosophy. Church history and biog-
raphy. Outside of books relating to the ecclesiastical life,
his favorite reading was history, especially that of the
United States. He read all of the great works on that
subject, and many that were not great. Now and then
he would reread a historical book which especially fas-
cinated him. American constitutional history was one of
his favorite subjects of research and meditation. He
liked to trace and retrace the processes of historical evolu-
tion and of mature thought by which the American con-
stitution was framed. It was his model for a civil gov-
ernment. He agreed with Hamilton and Madison in
their pleas in the Federalist papers, and regarded these
876 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
pleas as applicable in his own time. In the fields of
American history and civics his range of reading was
without limit.
Now and then he read a novel to divert his mind from
the absorbing experiences of the day. Any novel that was
wholesome, and, preferably had a touch of elegance of
style, was acceptable to him. The dramatic action stim-
ulated his interest keenly, for there was abundant zest in
everything that he did.
He was more than ordinarily fond of novels dealing
in whole or in part with religious subjects, such as "The
Garden of Allah." The works of Anthony Trollope,
A. Conan Doyle and F. Marion Crawford he also found
particularly attractive. He read considerably in Latin
and Greek, being fond of Cicero, Horace and Homer.
One of his favorite works, much of the philosophy of
which he illustrated in his own person, was De Senectute.
Works in French occupied much space in his library and
he read them with facility.
Poetry fascinated him. He liked Pope, Dry den, Gold-
smith and Moore, and rambled widely in his excursions of
reading among both the English and American schools of
verse.
All books of low standard he barred rigorously. He
would not read them merely to understand their type of
literature or the type of life which they portrayed. In
him they excited only aversion. In a sermon on "Spirit-
ual Reading" he once laid down these precepts : ^
"Rigidly exclude from your household all books and
pamphlets which are hostile to religion and good morals.
^Discourses and Sermons, p. 249.
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 877
Never admit into your homes any newspaper or periodical
which ventilates obscene news or licentious scandals.
You are careful to avoid any dish which you know from
experience would nauseate your stomach, no matter how
tempting and palatable it may be to the taste. Why
then should you not discard those highly-seasoned novels
which may be agreeable to a morbid appetite, but which
defile the imagination and enfeeble the soul^"
Magazines and newspapers whose general tone com-
mended itself to him he read with avidity. He was al-
ways keen to keep up with contemporary events and
thought. English and French magazines in much variety
were especially included in his range. Few men were
better informed on current events. He had a penetrat-
ing power of interpreting accurately what he read.
Authorship naturally had a powerful appeal to one
who wandered so much in literary fields, yet he tempered
this impulse, as all others, to the cause of religion. His
first and most successful book, The Faith of Our Fathers,
was produced as a direct result of missionary zeal alone.
This appeared in 1876; his second book Our Christian
Heritage^ in 1889; the third. The Ambassador of Christ,
in 1896; the fourth, Discourses and Sermons, in 1908;
and the fifth and last, A Retrospect of Fifty Years, in
1916.
He wrote his books rapidly and, indeed, wrote letters
rapidly also, for his habit was to think over in advance
what he had to say and when he was ready to use the pen
his ideas flowed much faster than his hand could move.
Sometimes he made notes when his thoughts called for
expression so fast that there was danger of losing them
878 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
from the slowness of the pen, and then he would elaborate
the notes afterward.
"The great thing as to style," he once remarked in
speaking of his methods in writing books, "is to have
something to say. Words will come at the pressure of an
idea."
His aim was always at simplicity of style. "That is
the most difficult," he used to observe.
He wrote in a small, regular hand, erasing little. The
typewriter's development came too late in his life to be of
direct personal use to him. Most of his books were com-
posed in a comparatively short time. This was necessa-
rily the case in such a crowded life.
Gibbons was diverted into productive literature by his
experiences in North Carolina, the fountain of so many
of his aspirations, policies and accomplishments. Kindly
Protestant gentle folk of that State who welcomed him
to their homes when he was engaged in missionary jour-
neys over his vicariate, because there was often no Cath-
olic in a whole town whose guest he might be, were no
less ready to proffer their hospitality than to present to
him frankly their often distorted views of the faith
which he had come to spread. While, of course, courtesy
forbade them to obtrude the subject when there was
no occasion for it, all the circumstances of his mis-
sion there tended to bring clearly before him the mis-
understandings of the Catholic Church which had accu-
mulated through the years when she was unknown to
the mass of North Carolinians by direct contact. Force
of circumstances caused him to learn the viewpoint of the
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 879
majority of those among whom his lot was cast at that
stage of his life.
Sometimes preaching in a community where the Catho-
lic religion was unknown, perhaps from the pulpit of a
Protestant church, which he did not hesitate to use when
occasion offered no other means, he undertook to answer
the objections developed by his observations in the com-
munity where he happened to be. An impression which
was at least temporary was thus produced in such cases,
but when he returned to the same locality after a time,
he found the impression weakened, and the idea of sup-
plementing his sermons by a printed treatise thus occurred
to him.
The thought, once planted in his mind, began to take
deep root. While visiting Father Gross, his faithful col-
laborator in Wilmington, in the spring of 1876, he sug-
gested that the priest prepare such a treatise. Father
Gross replied:
"Bishop, why don't you write it^"
Inspiration flashed at once, and the Bishop replied :
"While the spirit is in me, give me paper and ink, and
I will jot down the first chapter."
That chapter has exercised a profound influence upon
the spiritual lives of an immense host, for it was and is
the keynote of The Faith of Our Fathers, of which Gib-
bons lived to see two million copies sold. It has served
to clear the way for missionary effort in distant dioceses
throughout the world, even the names of which he did
not know when he was composing its appealing pages.
He chose at the outset of the work thus begun under the
880 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
simple urging of Father Gross to employ dialogue for the
sake of clearness, citing as an illustration a conversation
between a Protestant minister and a convert to the
Catholic Church, of which the following are extracts :
"Minister. — You cannot deny that the Roman Catho-
lic Church teaches gross errors — the worship of images,
for instance.
"Convert. — I admit no such charge, for I have been
taught no such doctrines.
"Minister. — But the priest who instructed you did
not teach you all. He held back some points which he
knew would be objectionable to you.
"Convert. — He withheld nothing; for I am in posses-
sion of books treating fully of all Catholic doctrines.
"Minister. — Deluded soul ! Don't you know that in
Europe they are taught differently"?
"Convert. — That cannot be, for the Church teaches
the same creed all over the world, and most of the doc-
trinal books which I read were originally published in
Europe."
The text proceeds:
"We cannot exaggerate the offense of those who thus
wilfully malign the Church. There is a commandment
which says: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor.'
"If it is a sin to bear false testimony against one in-
dividual, how can we characterize the crime of those who
calumniate three hundred millions of human beings, by
attributing to them doctrines and practises which they
repudiate and abhor "? I do not wonder that the Church is
hated by those who learn what she is from her enemies.
It is natural for an honest man to loathe an institution
whose history he believes to be marked by bloodshed,
crime and fraud.
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 881
"Had I been educated as they were, and surrounded
by an atmosphere hostile to the Church, perhaps I should
be unfortunate enough to be breathing vengeance against
her today, instead of consecrating my life to her defence.
"It is not of their hostility that I complain, but be-
cause the judgment they have formed of her is based upon
the reckless assertions of her enemies, and not upon those
of impartial witnesses.
"Suppose that I wanted to obtain a correct estimate
of the Southern people, would it be fair in me to select,
as my only sources of information, certain Northern and
Eastern periodicals which, during our Civil War, were
bitterly opposed to the race and institutions of the South?
Those papers have represented you as men who always
appeal to the sword and pistol, instead of the law, to vin-
dicate your private grievances. They heaped accusations
against you which I will not here repeat. Instead of
taking these publications as the basis of my information,
it was my duty to come among you ; to live with you ; to
read your life by studying your public and private char-
acter. This I have done, and I here cheerfully bear wit-
ness to your many excellent traits of mind and heart.
"Now I ask you to give to the Catholic Church the
same measure of fairness which you reasonably demand
of me when judging of Southern character. Ask not her
enemies what she is, for they are blinded by passion; ask
not her ungrateful, renegade children, for you never
heard a son speaking well of the mother whom he had
abandoned and despised.
"Study her history in the pages of truth. Examine
her creed. Read her authorized catechisms and doctrinal
books. You will find them everywhere on the shelves of
booksellers, in the libraries of her clergy, on the tables of
Catholic families.
"There is no freemasonry in the Catholic Church; she
has no secrets to keep back. She has not one set of doc-
882 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
trines for Bishops and priests, and another for the laity.
She has not one creed for the initiated and another for
outsiders. Everything in the Catholic Church is open
and above board. She has the same doctrines for all —
for the Pope and the peasant.
"Should not I be better qualified to present to you the
Church's creed than the unfriendly witnesses whom I
have mentioned ■? . . .
"It is to me a duty and a labor of love to speak the
truth concerning my venerable Mother, so much maligned
in our days. Were a tithe of the accusations which are
brought against her true, I would not be attached to her
ministry, nor even to her communion, for a single day. I
know these charges to be false. The longer I know her,
the more I admire and venerate her. Every day she de-
velops before me new spiritual charms.
"In coming to the Church, you are not entering a
strange place, but you are returning to your Father's
home. The house and furniture may look odd to you,
but it is just the same as your forefathers left it three
hundred years ago. In coming back to the Church, you
worship where your fathers worshiped before you, you
kneel before the altar at which they knelt, you receive
the Sacraments which they received, and respect the
authority of the clergy whom they venerated."
The preparation of subsequent chapters of the book
was crowded into the indefatigable young Bishop's labors.
He meditated upon them when traveling on railway cars
or by other means, and confirmed upon his return the
abundant quotations and references from the Bible and
other books which he cited in confirmation of his state-
ments. In clear, simple and classic English he thus wrote
the principles of the Catholic religion, while replying in
detail to the arguments commonly urged against it.
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 883
No religious controversial book — if such it may be
called — was ever conceived in a broader spirit. It leaves
no sting with the reader, whatever be its convictions, and
as a concise explanation of the Church, her history, doc-
trines and mission, there is practically unanimous judg-
ment that it has never had an equal. One may put down
the book and say "I disagree," but never "I do not under-
stand."
Its literary strength gave it a permanent place in the
libraries of the world almost immediately after its publi-
cation, late in 1876; priests found that it said what they
wanted to say, better than they could say it themselves,
and its circulation in great numbers of copies has ever
since been a favorite means of reinforcing the efforts of
the clergy. The work has been translated into twelve
languages. It is probably true. Bishop Shahan has said,
that, after the Bible, no religious book has had so wide a
circulation.
In particular, the author defended with warmth the
assertion that the Catholic Church has always been a
zealous promoter of religious and civil liberty. Wherever
encroachments on these rights of man were perpetrated
by individual adherents to her faith, he argued, the
wrongs, far from being sanctioned by the Church, were
committed in palpable violation of her authority. He
brought out the old arguments about the Spanish in-
quisition and the massacre of St. Bartholemew, of which
he had heard not a little in North Carolina, and discussed
them fully from the Catholic point of view.
Taking up the leading doctrines of the Church, he
gave a simple but sufficient explanation of each, dealing
88* LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
successively with the Trinity, the incarnation, unity of
the Church, apostolicity, perpetuity, authority, the
primacy of Peter, the supremacy of the Popes, the tem-
poral power, invocation of saints, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, sacred images, purgatory, prayers for the dead,
charges of religious persecution, the Holy Eucharist, the
sacrifice of the Mass, the use of religious ceremonies and
the Latin language, penance, indulgence and extreme
unction.
The broad charity which shines through the pages of
the book has been perhaps as potent as its logic in carry-
ing conviction to the minds of hundreds of thousands of
readers throughout the world.
In composing The Faith of Our Fathers Gibbons, as
related by himself, tried to be so clear and simple as to
reach the feeblest intelligence, and at the same time suf-
ficiently deep and thorough to reach the highest. As he
proceeded with the difficult task, he scratched out with
his pen long sentences or involved meanings and simpli-
fied them. He was most careful to discard every line
that seemed to have a sting in it. According to his own
version in later years of his methods of composition, he
said to himself in regard to a line of that kind when he
would come to it: "This may create a smile, but it has
no place in a permanent work."
He submitted the manuscript to several critics before
publication. This, in his view, implied an obligation
to follow their advice and he did so; but he subsequently
expressed the opmion that the changes had not strength-
ened the book ; probably indeed, although he did not say
so in direct terms, he thought that they weakened it con-
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 885
siderably. Late in life he expressed the view that a spe-
cial Providence had guided him in the preparation of the
work.
The book was published in Baltimore, a comparatively
small edition being issued, as in the boldest hopes enter-
Itained for its success there was no thought of the world-
wide vogue destined for it. Gibbons subsequently said
that an edition of five thousand copies was the "ultima
thule" of his expectations then. No one was more sur-
prised than he when the first edition was exhausted
rapidly, after the manner of a popular novel. One im-
print after another was made in increasing quantities,
until the popularity which the work attained came to be
accepted as a baffling mystery both by the author and
his personal friend, the publisher, who was sometimes
at a loss to supply the eager demand.
As the sales leaped from units into thousands at a time,
Gibbons found pleasure in the reports that were made to
him of the additional copies sold, and seemed to have the
figures at his fingers' ends. He remarked with elation
to a friend who called upon him one evening in 1914 that
.the sale of The Faith of Our Fathers had then surpassed
that of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
He was convinced of the necessity of the work, partic-
ularly in English-speaking countries where the Catholic
Church is compelled to contend constantly against miscon-
ceptions of her doctrines and policies. The simplicity
and clearness of the appeal, he felt, were essential to its
potency. It was aimed especially to reach the average
man who, through no fault of his own, had absorbed
and retained current and often fanciful misrepresenta-
886 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tions on the subject. It did not occur to the modest
Bishop that his simplicity of style was so limpid that hun-
dreds of thousands, bewildered by the doubts of theolog-
ical disputations, would turn to it with relief as solving
their perplexities.
The results reaped from the work were naturally one
of the deepest of Gibbons' consolations. Chatting in his
study one night when he was nearly eighty years old, he
said that he had just received a letter from a friend who
had been converted to the Catholic Church "by one of my
books."
''The Faith of Our Fathers?" the visitor suggested.
"Yes," he replied. "By the way, I also have a letter
from a friend in Italy who tells me of the great circula-
tion which the book has attained in his country."
"Was the writing of The Faith of Our Fathers an
inspiration?" the visitor asked.
"I am beginning to think that it was," mused the Car-
dinal, "although I had no idea of it at the time. I wrote
it rather reluctantly as a duty and not because I felt
especial enthusiasm about it. Some book was necessary
to correct the errors of possible converts and I believed
that it would be a decided help to me in my work. When
I took it to the publisher, John Murphy, he estimated its
probable circulation at three thousand copies. I was the
most surprised person of all over the demand for it that
was found to exist.
"Of all the things about the book, one point that grati-
fies me most is that, although it is an explanation of the
Catholic religion, there is not one word in it that can
give offense to our Protestant brethren. There was orig-
inally a reference that seemed to displease Episcopalians,
but when my attention was called to it I promptly ordered
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 887
it to be expunged. Had I written the book in Catholic
Baltimore, I might have fallen into something of that
kind. But in North Carolina, where opinion was almost
unanimously against me, I was on my good behavior. It
was fortunate that it was so."
The popularity of the work and the use of copies of it
in great numbers by Bishops and priests as a means of
presenting the tenets of the Catholic faith naturally
caused a multitude of suggestions to flow in upon the
author. His disposition was to accept these suggestions,
even when that involved the expansion of the book be-
yond its original limits. In its inception it was intended
only to set forth the main doctrines of the Church and to
combat the chief errors regarding those doctrines which
were commonly held. In this form the book was compact
and unified and possessed an irresistible appeal of style.
As suggestions were offered by others, Gibbons rewrote
parts of some of the original chapters and inserted other
chapters until the last edition considerably exceeded the
limits which he had intended for the book at first. The
effect was to make it a complete exposition of Catholic
doctrine, as compared with a designedly incomplete one
that had been intended only to combat major errors. The
process of addition also involved a certain measure of
dilution of the original literary style, and the book in its
final form, while perhaps more useful for its general
purpose, cannot be said to be an improvement on the first
edition in literary strength and grace.
Gibbons cared nothing for this. He seemed to be un-
moved by vanity of authorship. As he changed the book
from time to time, he believed that he was increasing the
888 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
harvest of souls which would be reaped through its influ-
ence, and this far overweighed any other consideration,
personal or otherwise, which could have appealed to him.
He devoted a great deal of time and thought to the
preparation of Our Christian Heritage^ which was pub-
lished at the time of the centennial of the American Hier-
archy; and he dedicated it to the memory of Archbishop
Carroll and the American prelates and clergy, "heirs of
his faith and mission." In his first book he had been the
priest preaching to the people; but from the pages of
Our Christian Heritage shines the character of citizen as
well as priest.
It may be described in brief as an argument in behalf
of Christianity addressed to the average busy man of the
time accustomed to be guided by material considerations
in his daily work, and doubting, from force of habit, con-
clusions as to religion whose premises he can not clearly
comprehend. Gibbons aimed to demonstrate by means
of the unaided reason the fundamental truths underlying
Christianity and he declared that this was sufficient,
though "they are made still more luminous by the light
of Christian revelation." The book is a compressed the-
ology for a cross-section of general humanity. He was
moved to write it, he said, because The Faith of Our
Fathers presupposed certain truths — the existence of God,
free will, and others — and he wished to show the basis
of Christian belief in these doctrines.
The author conceived Our Christian Heritage as non-
sectarian and hoped that it would appeal to everybody.
In the introduction to it, he set forth:
FAC-SIMILE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS' HAXDWRITIXG
(Extract jrom •■Our Cliristian Heritage")
^„t-^ '^Tf^ ^iy*<.'<.
, "? JJ- A^'--^^ f^'"'^ ^*^t -f....^^
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 889
"This book is not polemical. It does not deal with the
controversies that have agitated the Christian world since
the religious convulsion of the sixteenth century. It does
not, therefore, aim at vindicating the claims of the Cath-
olic Church as superior to those of the separated branches
of Christianity — a subject that has already been ex-
haustively treated.
"It has nothing to say against any Christian denomina-
tion that still retains faith in at least the Divine mission
of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, I am glad to acknowl-
edge that most of the topics discussed in this little volume
have often found, and still find, able and zealous advo-
cates in Protestant writers. And far from despising or
rejecting their support, I would gladly hold out to them
the right hand of fellowship, so long as they unite with
us in striking at the common foe."
Addressing those who rejected Christianity upon the
ground of doubts of its physical evidence, he wrote:
"While avowing their ignorance of many of the physi-
cal laws that govern the universe and that regulate even
their own bodies which they see and feel, they will insist
on knowing everything regarding the incomprehensible
Deity and His attributes. In a word, they will admit
mysteries in the material world that surrounds them ; but
mysteries in the supernatural world they will not accept.
They will deny any revealed truth that does not fall
within the range of human experience and that is not in
accordance with the discovered laws of nature. But to
reject a dogma on such grounds cannot be approved by
philosophy or sound sense."
Enumerating the fruits of Christian civilization, he
contrasted them effectively with conditions among pagan
peoples. He showed that Christianity has "delivered us
890 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
from idolatry and led us to the worship of the one true
and living God" ; that it has "brought not only light to
our intellects, but also peace to our hearts, that peace
which springs from the knowledge of the truth and the
hope of eternal life" ; that Christ "has given benediction
to the home by proclaiming the unity, the sanctity and
the indissolubility of marriage" ; that hospitals and asy-
lums, previously unknown, have sprung up in every Chris-
tian land; that "human slavery has melted away before
the effulgent rays of the Gospel"; that the dignity of
labor has been proclaimed and that the number of wars
has been diminished and their horrors have been reduced.
The last part of Our Christian Heritage is an applica-
tion of the general vindication of Christianity set forth
in the first part. Chapters deal with the "Dignity,
Rights and Duties of the Laboring Classes," "Religion,
the Essential Basis of Civil Society," "The Religious
Element in our American Civilization," and "The Dan-
gers That Threaten our American Civilization."
In the chapter on labor. Gibbons took another oppor-
tunity to defend energetically the right of workingmen
to organize "for their mutual protection and benefit."
Defending this view, he wrote :
"Labor has its sacred rights as well as its dignity.
Paramount among the rights of the laboring classes, is
their privilege to organize, or to form themselves into
societies for their mutual protection and benefit. It is in
accordance with natural right that those who have one
common interest should unite together for its promotion.
Our modern labor associations are the legitimate succes-
sors of the ancient guilds of England.
"In our days there is a universal tendency towards
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 891
organization in every department of trade and business.
In union there is strength in the physical, moral and social
world; and just as the power and majesty of our Repub-
lic are derived from the political union of the several
States, so do men clearly perceive that the healthy com-
bination of human forces in the economic world can
accomplish results which could not be effected by any
individual efforts. Throughout the United States and
Great Britain there is to-day a continuous network of
S3mdicates and trusts, of companies and partnerships, so
that every operation from the construction of a leviathan
steamship to the manufacture of a needle is controlled by
a corporation.
"When corporations thus combine, it is quite natural
that mechanics and laborers should follow their example.
It would be as unjust to deny to workingmen the right
to band together because of the abuses incident to such
combinations, as to withhold the same right from capital-
ists because they sometimes unwarrantably seek to crush
or absorb weaker rivals.
"The public recognition among us of the right to or-
ganize implies a confidence in the intelligence and hon-
esty of the masses; it affords them an opportunity of
training themselves in the school of self-government, and
in the art of self-discipline; it takes away from them
every excuse and pretext for the formation of dangerous
societies; it exposes to the light of public scrutiny the
constitution and laws of the association and the delibera-
tions of the members; it inspires them with a sense of their
responsibility as citizens and with a laudable desire of
meriting the approval of their fellow-citizens. Tt is
better,' as Matthew Arnold observes, 'that the body of
the people with all its faults, should act for itself, and
control its own affairs, than that it should be set aside
as ignorant and incapable, and have its affairs managed
for it by a so-called superior class.' "
892 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
While defending the right of workingmen to organize,
Gibbons did not neglect to add that they must banish
extremists from their ranks, saying:
"They should therefore be careful to exclude from
their ranks that turbulent element composed of men who
boldly preach the gospel of anarchy, socialism and nihil-
ism; those land-pirates who are preying on the industry,
commerce and trade of the country; whose mission is to
pull down and not to build up ; who instead of upholding
the hands of the government that protects them, are bent
on its destruction, and instead of blessing the mother
that opens her arms to welcome them, insult and defy
her. If such revolutionists had their way, despotism
would supplant legitimate authority, license would reign
without liberty, and gaunt poverty would stalk through-
out the land."
He expressed his disapproval of boycotting and held
that "experience has shown that strikes are a drastic and
at best a very questionable remedy for the redress of the
laborers' grievances. They paralyze industry; they often
foment fierce passions, and lead to the destruction of
property; and, above all, they result in inflicting grievous
injury on the laborer himself by keeping him in enforced
idleness, during which his mind is clouded by discontent
while brooding over the situation, and his family not
infrequently suffers from the want of even the necessaries
of life."
He presented an earnest plea for the arbitration of dis-
putes between capital and labor, urging that it was "con-
ciliatory and constructive" as distinguished from the ag-
gression and destructiveness of strikes.
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 893
He also warned labor that some forms of discontent
were to be shunned. He wrote :
"While honestly striving to better your condition, be
content with your station in life, and do not yield to an
inordinate desire of abandoning your present occupation
for what is popularly regarded as a more attractive avoca-
tion. Remember that while the learned professions are
over-crowded, there is always a demand for skilled and
unskilled labor, and that it is far better to succeed in
mechanical or manual work, than to fail in professional
life. Be not over eager to amass wealth, for they who
are anxious to become rich, 'fall into temptations and
into the snares of the Devil, and into many unprofitable
and hurtful desires which drown men in destruction and
perdition.'
"A feverish ambition to accumulate a fortune, which
may be called our national distemper, is incompatible
with peace of mind. Moderate means with a contented
spirit are preferable to millions without it. If poverty
has its inconveniences and miseries, wealth has often
greater ones."
Gibbons was expounding a favorite theme in his chap-
ter on "Religion, the Essential Basis of Civil Society."
He set forth that he was using the word religion
"in its broadest and most comprehensive sense as embody-
ing the existence of God, His infinite power and knowl-
edge; His providence over us; the recognition of Divine
law; the moral freedom and responsibility of man; the
distinction between good and evil ; the duty of rendering
our homage to God and justice and charity to our neigh-
bor ; and finally the existence of a future state of rewards
and punishments."
894 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The book proceeds:
"What motives, religion apart, are forcible enough to
compel legislators, rulers, and magistrates to be equitable
and impartial in their decisions'? What guarantee have
we that they will not be biased by prejudice and self-
interest? Will a thirst for fame and a desire for public
approbation prove a sufficient incentive for them to do
right? How often has not this very love of glory and
esteem impelled them to trample on the rights and lib-
erties of the many, in order to win the approbation of a
few sycophants, just as Roboam oppressed his subjects
that he might be admired and praised by his young cour-
tiers, and as Alexander enslaved nations to receive the
applause of the fickle Athenians.
"Would you vote for a presidential candidate that
avowed atheistic principles'? I am sure you would not.
You would instinctively mistrust him ; for an unbelieving
President would ignore the eternal laws of justice, and
the eternal laws of justice are the basis of civil legisla-
tion.
"... Religion is anterior to society and more endur-
ing than governments; it is the focus of all social virtues,
the basis of public morals, the most powerful instrument
in the hands of legislators ; it is stronger than self-interest,
more awe-inspiring than civil threats, more universal than
honor, more active than love of country, — the surest
guarantee that rulers can have of the fidelity of their
subjects, and that subjects can have of the justice of their
rulers; it is the curb of the mighty, the defence of the
weak, the consolation of the afflicted, the covenant of God
with man; and, in the language of Homer, it is 'the golden
chain which suspends the earth from the throne of the
eternal.' "
Gibbons pointed out in Our Christian Heritage that
the Declaration of Independence contains a devout recog-
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 895
nition of God and His overruling providence. "God's
holy name," he wrote, "greets us in the opening para-
graph and is piously invoked in the last sentence of the
Declaration; and thus it is at the same time the corner-
stone and the keystone of this great monument of free-
dom."
As to the Federal Constitution, he felt no concern be-
cause the name of God was not imprinted there,
"so long as the constitution itself is interpreted by the
light of Christian revelation. . . . Far better for the
nation that His spirit should animate our laws; that He
should be invoked in our courts of justice; that He should
be worshiped in our citadels on Thanksgiving Day and
that His guidance should be implored in the opening of
our congressional proceedings."
Washington's faith in God and his frequent references
to the Supreme Being in his public addresses and state
papers were cited by Gibbons in the same connection.
He remarked that the oath taken by every President of
the United States before he assumed the duties of office
implies a belief in God. Gibbons added :
"In one century we have grown from three millions to
sixty millions.^ We have grown up, not as distinct, in-
dependent and conflicting communities, but as one cor-
porate body, breathing the same atmosphere of freedom,
governed by the same laws, enjoying the same political
rights. I see in all this a wonderful manifestation of the
humanizing and elevating influence of Christian civiliza-
tion. We receive from abroad people of various nations,
races and tongues, habits and temperament, who speedily
become assimilated to the human mass, and who form one
•1789-1889.
896 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
homogeneous society. What is the secret of our social
stability and order*? It results from wise laws, based on
Christian principles, and which are the echo of God's
eternal law.
"What is the cohesive power that makes us one body
politic out of so many heterogeneous elements'? It is the
religion of Christ. We live as brothers because we recog-
nize the brotherhood of humanity — one Father in heaven,
one origin, one destiny."
He enumerated the "dangers that threaten our Ameri-
can civilization" (writing in the year 1889) as follows:
"We are confronted by five great evils — Mormonism
and divorce, which strike at the root of the family and
society; an imperfect and vicious system of education,
which undermines the religion of our youth ; the desecra-
tion of the Christian Sabbath, which tends to obliterate in
our adult population the salutary fear of God and the
homage that we owe Him; the gross and systematic elec-
tion frauds; and lastly the unreasonable delay in carrying
into effect the sentences of our criminal courts, and the
numerous subterfuges by which criminals evade the exe-
cution of the law. Our insatiable greed for gain, the co-
existence of colossal wealth with abject poverty, the ex-
travagance of the rich, the discontent of the poor, our
eager and impetuous rushing through life, and every other
moral and social delinquency, may be traced to one of
the five radical vices enumerated above."
Mormonism in the aspects which once gave offense to
the nation has been substantially modified since Our
Christian Heritage was written, but the Cardinal's vigor-
ous arguments and marshaling of statistics to show the
evils of divorce were more needed at the time of his
death even than when he penned the pages of the book.
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 897
As to education, he expounded the Catholic view that
religious instruction ought to go hand in hand with secu-
lar instruction. He denied that the instruction given
once a week in Sunday schools, "though productive of
very beneficial results" was sufficient to supply the re-
ligious wants of children. "By what principle of jus-
tice," he asked, "can you store their minds with earthly
knowledge for several hours each day, while their hearts,
which require far more cultivation, must be content with
the paltry allowance of a few weekly lessons'?"
The subject of Sunday observance was much discussed
in the year 1889, on account of the considerable varia-
tion of methods in that respect in rural communities and
in American cities. The extreme laxity, almost amount-
ing to non-observance, which then prevailed in a num-
ber of cities was Gibbons' reason for the stress which he
put upon the subject.
There were gross election frauds in America in those
days before public opinion had been aroused on the sub-
ject, and before the safeguards of the secret ballot had
been perfected. Gibbons described those frauds "as the
gravest menace to free institutions." His warning
against the intolerable delays in many of the processes of
courts of justice was one which he repeated not infre-
quently in public addresses.
In the midst of one of the busiest periods of his life,
Gibbons found time to write his third book, The Ambas-
sador of Christ. Though he was often hurried in this
task by other duties, his powers of mind enabled him to
concentrate on it in the intervals of interruptions. The
title is taken from the twentieth verse of the fifth chapter
898 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of II Corinthians: "For Christ we are ambassadors; God,
as it were, exhorting by us." It is a book for priests,
embodying the experiences and views of a man who had
achieved remarkable results in developing other men for
the labors of the ministry.
The origin of The Ambassador of Christ was an essay
on the vocation of the priesthood originally intended for
a magazine. Gibbons found it too long and divided it
into two parts; these parts also seemed too long and he
divided each of them into two more parts. Finally the
idea came to him: "I will write a book on the subject";
and he proceeded to the task.
He pointed out in its pages that it was doubtful if any
age or country ever presented a more inviting field for
missionary labor than the United States, Catholic pas-
tors here had a free opportunity for their spiritual efforts.
"No military satrap or state functionary is permitted to
enter our churches in the capacity of official censor to
arrest, fine or imprison a minister of the Gospel for his
conscientious utterances in vindication of social morals
and in denunciation of official corruption." He set forth
reasons for the view which he often expressed that Ameri-
cans were fundamentally a religious people, emphatically
rejecting the opinion of those who characterized them as
a nation so absorbed in trade and commerce, in agricul-
ture and politics as to give scarcely a thought to eternal
truths. A people having only slight regard for Chris-
tianity, he held, would not have spent millions annually
in the erection of churches and in the maintenance of
home and foreign missions.
The natural virtues that are the indispensable basis
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 899
of supernatural life, he maintained, were possessed in a
marked degree by the American people. They were gifted
and intelligent, self-poised and deliberate, of industrious
and temperate habits, frank, moral and ingenuous. They
had a deep sense of justice and fair play; were brave
and generous, usually showing the courage of their con-
victions; and, with all this, were law-abiding as a whole.
While the Catholic Church, he showed, accommodated
herself to every form of government, she had a special
adaptability to the American political system and to the
genius of the people. As the Church was the great con-
servative force of society the world over, he took the
ground that her influence was particularly necessary in a
country of constitutional freedom, where there would be
at times a tendency to extremes.
The main topics discussed in The Ambassador of
Christ include the Divine vocation of the ministry, the
duties of teachers to pupils, and of pupils to teachers;
the traits which make a successful priest, and the virtues
and the accomplishments which he ought to exemplify.
He urged that priests should go out among their people,
declaring that the visitation of the sick and distressed was
the touchstone of apostolic zeal and charity. In particu-
lar, he advised attention to the young; and he paid a
beautiful tribute to the Christian mother.
A reflection of his own deep and constant study of the
Scriptures is found in a chapter on that subject, in which
he urged with particular forcefulness the necessity of inti-
mate communion with the Book of Books. He took
strong ground in favor of congregational singing, ex-
pressing the belief that Charles Wesley had accomplished
900 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
as much in the cause of Methodism by his hymns as
John Wesley had effected by preaching.
He was particularly earnest in exhorting preparation
for the duties of the ministry. Learning he pronounced
essential for a priest. Regarding the argument some-
times cited that the Apostles, except St. Paul, were illit-
erate men, he answered that apart from their spiritual in-
spiration they were far from being deficient in theological
knowledge. They exhibited a marked familiarity with
the ancient prophecies; and did they not study divinity
for three years at its source *? Since their day^ he pointed
out, education had become far more generally diffused;
and the priest should keep pace with the trend of modern
thought in order to make himself an effective unit in the
world around him. He insisted upon the need of the pov-
erty of the priesthood, citing Christ as the model.
His keen interest and practical experience in the man-
agement of parish schools were reflected in his advice to
the clergy on that subject. He exhorted pastors to see
that "next to God, their country should hold the strong-
est place in the affections of the children." Familiar
lessons should be incorporated in the textbooks, incul-
cating reverence for American political institutions and
embodying a knowledge of the duties and rights of the
citizen. He recommended the public reading in the
school room, at intervals, of the Declaration of Independ-
ence and the Constitution, as being especially profitable
instruction.
Not only in his life, but in his literary work, Gibbons
was stamped as a mentor of priests. The Faith of Our
Fathers is their best means of presenting the Catholic
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 901
faith to persons whose religious life is weakening, or to
prospective converts. The Atnbassador of Christ is, in
its essentials, a textbook for the clergy and since its pub-
lication it has been used as a guide by many priests in
the English-speaking world.
Gibbons' Discourses and Sermons are a collection of
fifty-five of the principal pulpit addresses which he made
in the course of his life. When he issued them in 1908,
he had reached the age of seventy-four years, and they
embrace therefore the substance of the entire message as
a preacher which he had undertaken to deliver. They
have had a large circulation and have brought comfort
to thousands of Christians, including a great number who
do not accept the Catholic faith.
The Retrospect of Fifty Years^ in two volumes, is, to a
large extent, a collection of his previous writings in re-
views and magazines and some of his addresses and ser-
mons delivered upon public occasions, such as church
anniversaries and conventions. They include his diary
of the Vatican Council, extracts from which were printed
in the Catholic World at the time of that gathering, of
which, when the Retrospect was issued, he was the only
survivor. In general the subjects covered are Church
history and political problems, an epitome of his versa-
tile labors. His faith in America was undimmed, as
shown by the following extract from the introduction to
the book:
"There are few Americans living now who can remem-
ber the things which I can. I followed Mr. Lincoln's
dead body in procession when it was brought to this city ;
I have seen every President since his death, and have
902 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
known most of them personally; I was a grown man and
a priest during the Civil War when it seemed as if our
country were to be permanently divided. Very few peo-
ple now living have .seen the country in such distress as
I have seen it. But I have lived, thank God, to see it in
wonderful prosperity and to behold it grown into one of
the great powers of the earth.
"Younger men may tremble for the future of this
country, but I can have nothing but hope when I think
what we have already passed through, for I can see no
troubles in the future which could equal, much less sur-
pass, those which have afflicted us in bygone days. If
only the American people will hold fast to that instru-
ment which has been bequeathed to them as the palladium
of their liberties — the Constitution of the United States,
— and fear and distrust the man who would touch that
ark with profane hands, the permanence of our institu-
tions is assured.
"In my time I have seen multitudes of Europeans
seeking this shore in search of liberty and hope. The
men who were middle aged when I was young, doubted
and feared whereunto this might grow; but I have seen
men of foreign birth become one with us, and I think it
no more than justice that I should call the attention of
my countrymen to the reason.
"The same power which welded the Latin, Gaul,
Frank, Briton and Norman into the nation of France;
which welded the Briton, Saxon, Dane and Norman into
the nation of England, has been present among us and
has again exercised its benign influence in welding divers
races into one people: That power is the Catholic
Church. If there do not now lie over against each other
in this country hostile nationalities with different lan-
guages, different points of view and different aspirations,
it is because those who have come to us, whatever may
have been their nationality, have for the most part had
LITERARY TASTES AND LABORS 903
one common characteristic — they have been Catholic
Christians.
"When I was young, men feared the Catholic Church
because they thought her foreign and un-American. Yet
I have lived to see their children and their children's
children acknowledge that if the different nations which
have come to our shores have been united into one people,
and if today there is an American people, it is largely ow-
ing to the cohesive and consolidating influence of the
Christian religion of our ancestors.
"But again, many men once amongst us feared the
Catholic Church because they thought her opposed to
liberty; yet if they had read history, even superficially,
they would have known that no liberty which they pos-
sessed has come to them except through the agency of that
religion which molded our barbarian ancestors into the
civilized nations of Europe. But for her there would
have been no civilization today, and without civilization
there could have been no liberty.
"Nor has the Church affected those only who have
come to these shores and brought them in contact with
American ideals. She has attracted to her communion
multitudes of the native born, as she does wherever she
is free to preach the Gospel ; for she cannot speak to any
man or woman of European descent without awakening
in his or her mind the echoes of the faith of our fathers ;
for that is the faith the Church teaches. Her faith is the
faith of the fathers, not alone of the immigrants, but
also of the native born. For centuries all our fathers
were born to her in Holy Baptism and died in her bosom."
CHAPTER XLIX
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE
The personality of Gibbons was a never-ending theme
among those who knew him. It was not only one of the
most strongly marked that was possessed by any con-
spicuous leader of his time; it was also one of the most
fascinating and versatile.
No man probably ever appeared in more different roles
with the same appearance of equal ease. This amounted
almost to causing the equivalent of an impression that
he was several different men in one and could transform
himself from one to another by mere thought.
The extreme mobility of his countenance contributed
both to the appearance and the reality of his versatility.
His features seldom seemed to be in precisely the same
alignment on any two occasions. The difference might
be slight or marked at various times, but there was no
mistaking the fact that a difference existed. He was the
despair of photographers, who could never obtain two
views of him that were exactly alike, and of painters and
sculptors, for whom he did not retain a fixed expression
long enough for them to reproduce it to their own satis-
faction. He was not merely a man of numerous moods,
but seemed to have an infinity of them.
In the blend of home life and work in his archiepisco-
pal residence his many-sided character was abundantly
904
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 905
in evidence. During about fifteen hours of every day
he was constantly occupied, and his endurance was a baf-
fling manifestation to those who were aware that his
health was not of the best. His activity continued with
only slight impairment up to the time of his last illness.
Even beyond the age of eighty he accomplished more than
most men in their prime, although the gradually increas-
ing effort which was required to do this became apparent.
He accounted for his own vital force by saying that it
was due to "regular habits, consistent diet, plenty of
fresh air and periodical exercise of the mind and body."
Another cause was his habit of moderation, for he exem-
plified to a marked degree the Greek motto "nothing too
much." Still another was an habitual optimism and
cheerfulness, the effects of which were apparent in slow-
ing up the decline which age might otherwise have
brought. Always he was looking ahead to something to
be done that was worth doing, and he undertook nothing
without a buoyant belief that he would succeed. His
mind and nervous system were constantly stimulated by
this process of courageous anticipation.
One physical gift of immense value to him was the
fact that his nerves appeared to be under complete con-
trol at nearly all times. His habits of thought and ac-
tion were steady, consistent and logical, rather than tem-
peramental, .although at rare intervals a vein of the
temperamental was evident. His firm and penetrating
but kindly gaze reflected the solidity and alert poise of
his mind. It was virtually impossible to disconcert him
by surprise or any other artifice.
His habit of being busily occupied in a great variety
906 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of duties diverted his mind from his physical defects.
Notwithstanding this, he fell into a habit, which neces-
sity imposed early in life, of taking the best care of his
general physical condition and of undergoing no risks,
with the single exception of prolonged exertion, which
might affect it adversely.
The climate of Baltimore, though on the whole pleas-
ant and salubrious, is changeable because the city is on
an isothermal line where the characteristics of the weather
in the northern states and the southern states blend. This
involves the necessity of care in the matter of dress to the
residents of the city and Gibbons had his own ideas about
the attire which suited the climate. In cold weather he
never "bundled up," no matter what the temperature.
When he was in the prime of life, he was accustomed to
wear a medium-weight overcoat in winter and omitted
all special protection of the neck and throat. Sometimes
he wore no gloves out of doors in the cold months, but
occasionally appeared in comparatively thin ones of kid.
He disliked to wear overshoes and was accustomed to take
long tramps in the snow without them, but if the pave-
ments were slushy or unusually damp from rain he would
sometimes wear a pair of half-rubbers to prevent the soles
of his feet from becoming wet.
In his walks he appeared in a suit of the plain black
cloth which priests wear, of good but cheap material and
without distinctiveness of any kind. The only marks of
dress to indicate his rank were the touch of red at the
throat and the red zucchetto, the rim of which showed
below the back of his hat. For many years he was ac-
customed to wear a silk hat on most of his walks, or in
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 907
summer a straw hat of the somber color used by Ameri-
can clergymen; but in later years he was partial to the
broad-brimmed, black felt hat with a round, low crown,
which many Bishops and priests wear in Europe, and
some in the United States.
His customary attire at home was a black cassock and
a cape edged with red. Only rarely did he wear a cassock
entirely of red. In the privacy of his study his form was
concealed by a dressing gown. He wished to wear light
clothing as a rule indoors, and avoided overheating his
residence in winter, although he was careful to seek an
even temperature in the house at all times.
So regular were his habits that a priest of his house-
hold once remarked that "the clock in the residence could
be set by the time when the Cardinal rises and when he
goes to bed." This was also true, to a large extent, of
some of the other divisions of time into which he sepa-
rated the day's activities.
Every morning he arose at six o'clock. His bedroom
was of the simplest. It contained a walnut bed, a dress-
ing table, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. For years
its appearance remained unchanged. So averse was the
Cardinal to innovations in personal habits that he con-
tinued to use an old-time pitcher and wash basin for his
ordinary ablutions long after the development of plumb-
ing brought the common use of running water in bed-
rooms. Priests are usually slow to make changes in liv-
ing conditions which merely minister to their own com-
fort, and the Cardinal shared this disposition.
He kept in his bedroom two pieces of apparatus for
muscular development and used them for a few minutes
908 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
after dressing every morning. One of them was for bring-
ing elasticity and strength to the arms; the other to the
body and legs. He called this process, as many athletes
do, "limbering up," and considered it to be especially
valuable in stimulating his vitality for the day's stress.
Twenty minutes after the Cardinal arose, he was fully
dressed and ready for the routine of the day. The next
thirty-five minutes he spent in morning prayers and medi-
tations in his room, his favorite subjects for spiritual re-
flection in that period being the Gospels or the epistles
of St. Paul. At seven o'clock punctually he entered the
Cathedral and began the celebration of his daily Mass, a
service which was attended often by hundreds of persons.
The Mass was ended at half past seven and after it he
spent twenty minutes in prayer before the Blessed Sacra-
ment (Thanksgiving after Mass).
He then turned his attention to secular things, re-
turning to his study in the southeast corner of his resi-
dence and devoting about ten minutes to glancing over
his morning mail and newspapers. At eight o'clock he
was called to breakfast.
By that time he had developed some degree of appe-
tite, but was most careful to eat sparingly and to avoid
partaking of anything outside a small range of foods
which, he had learned from experience, he was usually
able to assimilate. Every day in the year, except during
Lent and on Fridays and other days of abstinence, the
dishes were almost the same. In Lent he restricted the
meal to a small portion of bread and a cup of coffee.
Immediately after breakfast the Cardinal returned to
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 909
his study and read the day's newspapers rapidly but
with discriminating perception as to their contents. Al-
ways keenly interested in Baltimore, he was accustomed
to read the local news first, and sometimes made notes
of things that interested him or were important to him.
Next, he hastily scanned the news of America and the
world, in not a little of which he had a direct concern.
The developments of government and politics in this
country and abroad were particularly absorbing to him
as a result of his natural bent for the consideration of
public questions. He derived much pleasure from study-
ing the editorials, expressing sometimes to his secretary,
if that functionary happened to be present, his agreement
or disagreement with the views set forth.
Soon the Cardinal turned to the work of disposing of
his mail, which was, naturally, exceptionally voluminous
and varied. There might be a letter from the Pope or one
or more of the Cardinals in Rome who were the heads of
the bureaus of the Church. These required careful
thought both as to their substance and the wording of the
replies, and Gibbons often put them aside in order to
write the answers in Latin in his own hand. There
might also be a letter from the President of the United
States, the Secretary of State, some other member of the
Cabinet, an American governor, or one of the diplomatic
corps stationed in Washington. Many of these also he
answered personally, being able to write rapidly in his
small and legible hand and apparently feeling little fa-
tigue from doing so. If he dictated replies to such letters,
he was extremely precise as to every word, sometimes ris-
910 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ing from his chair and pacing up and down the floor
with his hands behind his back, as he framed the answer
for his secretary to take down.
While dictating, the expression of his countenance was
one of intense concentration. His eye was as keen as the
glistening point of a lance; his features were the picture
of alertness, resourcefulness, speed, like those of a lithe
runner about to dart across the starting line for a race.
Every word came out with a clear-cut precision of thought
that seemed to pierce to the heart of all obscurity. He
almost leaped from one letter or document to another
until the last of them had been disposed of. Then his
high-speed mental engine stopped; but he could start it
again at the same speed, if need be, at a moment's notice.
The other American Archbishops were in frequent cor-
respondence with him, and their letters received pains-
taking attention. Much of his correspondence related to
his own diocese, upon which he held the reins as firmly
as any Bishop in the world. No matter what his general
preoccupations might be, he was always ready to advise
one of his priests as to any problem which appeared to
be difficult, whether it might be the raising of funds to
build a church or a rectory; the establishment of a mis-
sion, or a disciplinary question that might arise within a
parish. The priests were not slow to consult him about
many details, knowing his habit of devoting careful
attention to them ; and, besides, not a few of them wrote
to him upon subjects which were purely personal. There
were also hundreds in secular walks of life who wrote to
him upon personal topics, many of which might have
appeared insignificant in the Cardinal's widely extended
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 911
perspective, but few of which he was accustomed to ig-
nore. His letters to these correspondents were usually of
moderate length, but he always avoided the brevity which
might suggest brusqueness.
Applications for help were numerous in his mail. Some
persons wished financial assistance, either for causes
which they represented or for themselves ; others besought
his endorsement of their applications for positions in the
business world. Naturally many persons whose minds
were unbalanced on the subject of religion wrote to him,
some of their communications being a score of pages in
length.
Besides all these there was a deluge of advertisements
of many kinds and offers of stock in mines, industrial
enterprises and land schemes, either as gifts or sales, such
as Americans of prominence receive. Publishers sent to
him many books. The political pamphleteers and other
pleaders did not fail to address their appeals to so power-
ful a figure in national life. Many of these communica-
tions obviously required no answer.
The Cardinal's mind was then functioning at its best,
which meant that he was capable of more intellectual
action in an instant than most persons are capable of in
hours. When he was in the prime of life the position of
his secretary was not without its trials. He did not per-
sonally write or dictate all his letters, because the time
consumed by that process would have been too long.
Not infrequently, where the circumstances permitted, he
would toss a letter to his secretary, giving the substance
of his reply, and saying to him: "Answer along these
lines."
dl2 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
There were some exceptionally gifted men who were
assigned to transcribe his correspondence at one period or
another, but it was almost impossible for any of them
to keep up with the whirlwind speed of the Cardinal's
mind. At the end of half an hour or more, when he had
finished and they left his study, their senses were almost
benumbed by the task which had been given to them.
If they failed in some particular, Gibbons was indulgent
and forgiving; but this only softened and did not remove
the apprehension with which the secretary sat down in
his own room to transfer to formal communications the
thoughts which had flashed so rapidly from the brilliant
brain of the Cardinal.
Correspondence with Rome and with Catholic prelates
elsewhere occupied a part of virtually every day. Even
after the establishment of the Papal legation at Wash-
ington, Gibbons' position made it necessary that much
of the American correspondence with Rome should con-
tinue to center in him.
Every Christmas he was accustomed to send to each
of his fellow Cardinals and to the Catholic sovereigns of
Europe letters wishing them prosperity, and offering
prayers in their behalf. Before the World War these
letters were addressed to the Emperor of Austria, the
Kings of Spain, Belgium and Saxony, and the Prince
Regent of Bavaria. After the war he continued to send
them to the Spanish and Belgian monarchs.
His correspondence with all the later Presidents was
frequent, as well as with many cabinet officers and heads
of bureaus in Washington. Not a few of these sought
1
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 913
his advice upon general subjects. His reach in Ameri-
can affairs seemed to penetrate almost everywhere.
He was invited, in some of the letters that he received,
to furnish material for debating societies. Requests were
made that he define views on government or current
events, and general questions were propounded to him.
It was characteristic of him that he took the pains to an-
swer as many of these communications as possible in a
way that would satisfy the inquirers.
Having finished with the mass of his correspondence,
Gibbons was accustomed to take up diocesan financial
affairs and his private business, which were not small in
volume. As the property of the Church in an American
diocese is held in the name of the Bishop, his judgment
and assent were necessary as to many details of financial
administration in the parishes. Bequests whose total
amounted to millions of dollars were made to him per-
sonally, it being expected, of course, that he would dis-
tribute the proceeds in works for the Church or general
benevolence. The royalties upon his books brought him
a large sum which was all his own; but he spent this
almost as rapidly as it came, and never on himself or
his own comforts.
His charities were without number and unknown to
any individual except himself. His fixed habit in regard
to them was not to let his left hand know what his right
hand did, and nothing could induce him to depart from
it. Some of the money which he bestowed, apart from
that devoted directly to Church purposes, went to educa-
tional and other institutions in the diocese of Baltimore,
914 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
including the Catholic University. He also paid from
time to time for repairs and improvements to his titular
church in Rome, that of Santa Maria in Trastevere, and
on one occasion gave $4,500 for placing a new roof upon
it.
He was constantly bestowing gifts upon persons who
needed them, including clothing and books, and gave
prompt attention to every bill for those things that was
sent to him. Many students received assistance from
him. Some of these were young men preparing for the
priesthood; others were acquiring a general education in
Catholic institutions. Among the last named were girls
or young women who had become orphaned, or who, for
some other reason, were suddenly left without funds
while their education was incomplete. Not one of them
knew who it was who paid for their tuition, books, clothes
and even the expenses of vacation trips.
The Cardinal's benefactions were freely given to those
who applied to him directly. The following actual case
was one of many: An elderly woman approached
him as he was entering his residence. She told him that
she was in want, related the circumstances and named the
amount which would relieve her necessities. The Car-
dinal replied:
"My good daughter, I am sorry to hear of your plight.
Surely you will receive the necessary assistance. Now go
in peace."
He immediately called an attache of the archiepiscopal
house, telling him to take the woman's name and see that
help was sent to her. She went on her way, and he
raised his hand in blessing and proceeded to his room.
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 915
It would be appraising the Cardinal's benefactions
unfairly to assume that they consisted wholly of financial
aid. He was accustomed to mingle good counsel and
personal effort with the assistance which he extended.
The fact that any person was in distress appealed to him
instantly, and he did not always stop to inquire as to the
reason. He would take time that might have been de-
voted to far weightier things to listen to accounts of in-
dividual troubles and to lend his sympathetic and active
efforts toward permanently assuaging them. Of all the
things in life which gave him satisfaction this was prob-
ably the first. Although sometimes persons in his house-
hold would catch a clue to one or more of his acts of this
kind, he showed great ingenuity in concealing them. The
best indication of their aggregate mass was the fact that
dozens of individuals placed in positions of responsibility
for the care of young persons and the poor considered the
Cardinal to be their benefactor and helper, ready to give
to the utmost of his ability and to devote his time to
them, as if that were the only concern which he had.
So much did he give away that he was sometimes seri-
ously embarrassed for lack of funds, although he ab-
horred debt and sought never to contract it. Once he said
to a friend :
'T have not a dollar in the world; if I had, I would pay
the debt upon Gibbons' Hall.^ As it has been erected
and bears my name, I am uneasy that any incumbrance
hangs over it."
So rapidy did Gibbons work that by ten o'clock every
week day morning he was ready to receive callers. From
* At the Catholic University.
916 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ten to twelve any person who went to his residence with
a legitimate mission could see him. There are two recep-
tion rooms in the house, and often there were callers in
both, as well as in a third room near-by which was
brought into use in order to provide for any overflow.
The audiences were arranged so that wherever it seemed
proper the Cardinal could receive his visitors individually.
Now and then, when there was a lull, he would trip
up the stairs to his study, often two steps at a time, sel-
dom placing his hand upon the railing of the staircase for
support. At the appearance of the next visitor, he would
descend with unruffled calm, as if the new caller were the
first who had come to see him that morning.
Many of his visitors were men distinguished in ecclesi-
astical or public life. There might be foreign diplomats
or noblemen, American statesmen, politicians, bankers,
merchants, authors, scientists, even actors and actresses,
some of whom called upon business and others merely to
pay their respects. Almost every distinguished visitor
to Baltimore who felt that it was proper for him to call
upon the Cardinal did so. European writers and persons
of note who were making tours of the country usually di-
verted their travels so that they might visit the famous
prelate. One and all of these expressed amazement, as
well they might, at the range of his knowledge of the sub-
jects which particularly interested them, including condi-
tions in their own countries.
Few men knew as well as he how to end a visit without
disturbing the sensibilities of the caller, who usually left
with a feeling of having been complimented by the espe-
cial attention bestowed.
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 917
Among his visitors were non-Catholic ministers, some
of whom, strange to say, consulted him about questions
relating to religion in regard to which they valued his
opinion more than those of men high in their own com-
munions.
Gibbons never attended a theater, so the actors and
actresses who visited him called, as a rule, because they
were devout Catholics and wished to pay their respects
to him while they were in Baltimore. He recognized that
some plays might be good, in fact beneficial to the moral
nature, as well as entertaining, yet he regarded so many
of them as evil in their effects upon the mind that he
could never bring himself to witness even one. He was
well acquainted with William J. Florence, Mary Ander-
son, Margaret Anglin and a number of other leading
stage folk, to whom he showed the utmost kindness when
the opportunity permitted. Mary Anderson (Mrs. Na-
varro) he regarded as a model of what a woman on the
stage ought to be, and she, in turn, was devoted to him.
After she had abandoned a theatrical career and taken
up her residence in England she esteemed it an honor to
visit him whenever his presence in that country made it
possible.
Sometimes he received special invitations to attend
theatrical performances. When he was Vicar Apostolic
of North Carolina, Edwin Forrest played in Wilmington
and sent a member of his company to invite Gibbons to
occupy a box at the performance. The emissary was,
perhaps, not well chosen, for this is the way he expressed
himself:
"Bishop, it is a question mooted among moralists as to
918 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
whether the stage, the press or the pulpit is the greatest
force for the advancement of religious and moral ideas.
As a member of the theatrical profession, I hesitate to
express my opinion."
The Bishop might have considered that he had ground
for assuming that the opinion which the actor withheld
was that the theatrical profession ranked first in this re-
spect. At any rate, he declined with thanks the invita-
tion which was presented.
European visitors were surprised at the ease with which
it was possible to arrange an audience with the Cardinal.
Naturally influenced by conditions which prevailed in
their own countries, they supposed that much formality
was necessary both in obtaining his consent to an inter-
view and as to the form of the interview itself. In both
of these matters they were greatly mistaken.
At the front door, instead of the liveried footman who
acts as usher for princes of the Church in Europe, was a
boy usually between thirteen and seventeen years old,
dressed in ordinary street clothes, who received cards
and carried them to Gibbons. All appearance of state or
of more than the simplest formality was lacking. The
real democracy of Gibbons' life was nowhere better
shown than in the manner of his public receptions.
His habit of meeting any person who called led some-
times to embarassing incidents, and on one occasion to
serious personal danger to himself. A man who the
Baltimore police said was a persistent criminal was found
on the street in the dress of a Catholic priest. It was
charged that he had attempted to obtain money fraudu-
lently from a business firm. When arrested, the man
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 919
said that he was a priest and asked to be taken to the
Cardinal's residence, so that he could prove his identity.
Detectives, relying upon the Cardinal's good nature and
his willingness to receive all, took the man to the archi-
episcopal house and requested Gibbons to examine him.
The Cardinal at once asked that the suspect be left alone
in the room with him for a few moments in order that
he might question him.
As Gibbons closed the door the man stood threaten-
ingly, with his hand in his overcoat pocket as if he might
draw a pistol. The Cardinal faced him fearlessly. Only
a few moments were required for him to ascertain defi-
nitely that the man was an impostor, and he pronounced
him such with the utmost coolness. The detectives were
again summoned and when the Cardinal had informed
them that the man was not a priest they took him away
to be arraigned. At the police station he drew a pistol
from his overcoat pocket and fired two shots. Later the
same man attempted to escape from jail and was only
prevented from doing so by the breaking of a rope.
Not infrequently persons who were somewhat unbal-
anced mentally contrived to obtain audiences with the
Cardinal, but his kindness and cordiality combined with
his ever-present tact usually caused them to reconsider
their desire to become disagreeable in any way. In May,
1899, ^ demented Baltimore mechanic called at his resi-
dence, and, upon being told that the Cardinal was out,
attempted to break in the door. He threatened to kill
the boy usher, and finally forced his way into the house,
where one of the Cathedral clergy contrived to save the
situation by the exercise of ready wit. Inviting the in-
920 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
truder into a room, he closed the door and kept him a
prisoner until a policeman arrived.
At noon Gibbons suspended his public audiences for
the time being, unless callers were waiting, or unless
there was special reason to see some one who arrived
after that time. He then retired to his study and spent
half an hour in the reading of his office, the daily spiritual
exercise prescribed by the Church.
Changing to street clothes and taking his hat and cane,
he started about half past twelve for his first daily walk.
His habitually cheerful mood became blithe and buoyant
as soon as he reached the open air, and, with the more
serious cares brushed aside, he started briskly through
the streets of downtown Baltimore.
Usually the Cardinal had some goal in these journeys.
Often he stopped at a bank where he was accustomed
to attend to his personal finances. Sometimes he went
to a book store, where his eye roved over the new acquisi-
tions, and he bought what he wished for himself, as well
as made occasional purchases of gifts for others. Again
his jaunt was through the busiest part of the city to the
office of his close friend, Michael Jenkins, the president
of a trust company, who was also the treasurer of the
Catholic University, and with whom he often considered
problems developed by the extraordinarily rapid growth
of that institution. If his watch, his spectacles, or any
little personal article needed repairs, he would stop in
places where these things could be attended to. Now
and then he visited one of the convents near the center
of the city, and not infrequently took the opportunity to
call upon a sick friend who, needless to say, was im-
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 921
mensely consoled by the considerate personal attentions
of so distinguished a man.
The revelation of the Cardinal's list of personal
acquaintances was little short of overpowering to persons
who were invited now and then to accompany him on
these midday excursions. As he passed along the busy
streets, he seemed to be almost continually lifting his
hat, and he called by name many of the persons with
whom he exchanged salutations. These acquaintances
were of almost endless variety. They embraced, of
course, almost the whole body of the leading men of
Baltimore in nearly every walk of life, but from this
apex they reached far down until they included news-
boys, upon whom the Cardinal was not unlikely to bestow
more time and attention than persons far above them in
station. Occasionally he would stop to buy out-of-town
newspapers from one of these boys, to drop a silver coin
into his hand and to exchange a few pleasant words.
The Cardinal's custom of buying newspapers in the
course of his walks soon became known among newsboys
generally, and five or six would rush to meet him, each
making a desperate effort to reach him first. He would
seem greatly amused, but always picked out the boy from
whom he was accustomed to purchase.
It is not usual for an Archbishop to possess a personal
acquaintance so large as to excite remark, but for many
years Gibbons had one far larger than any other man
in Baltimore. His intimates accepted this as a truism,
but no matter how well they were aware of the general
range of his personal relations they found new amaze-
ment each time they accompanied him on his midday
922 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
walks from observing the number who saluted him, and
were saluted in turn, in such a short distance as from
one street corner to another. Strangest of all, he seemed
to be an intimate part of the daily lives of those with
whom he exchanged salutations, sharing their joys and
sorrows — a fountain from which a thousand streams
flowed.
At twenty minutes past one o'clock, punctual as al-
ways, the Cardinal returned to his residence and ten
minutes later was seated at dinner. This was his most
abundant meal of the day, as he had found from experi-
ence that hearty meals in the morning and evening usually
deranged his digestion. Dinner was to him one of the
main events of the day, and almost always he sat down
to the table in high spirits, radiating zest, pleasantry and
anecdote. The weakness of his digestion imposed upon
him the practise of eating slowly, and he faithfully fol-
lowed the precepts of Fletcher, often taking a long time
to eat what to the average person would be a very slender
meal. For dinner the Cardinal not uncommonly had a
guest or two, perhaps a visiting Bishop, priest or layman.
To these he was always hospitable and entertaining, with
a grace that seemed unique, keeping up his spirited con-
versation and laughing heartily at times.
When only priests of the household were present. Gib-
bons led the conversation on terms of easy friendship
with them, and talked freely of events of the day, per-
sons, places and things, telling many stories and giving
forth a flood of information which made the period one
of great profit to young clergymen.
At dinner, as at breakfast, he chose his menu carefully
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 923
and it was practically the same from day to day and
year to year, except on fast days. Intricately prepared
or highly seasoned dishes were always excluded from his
table.
Dinner usually consumed about three-quarters of an
hour, after which the Cardinal returned to his study.
Now began the only interval of the day in which he
secluded himself. No matter where he was, or what sub-
ject was occupying him, he attempted to sleep for an
hour after the midday dinner. He formed this habit
early in life and continued it because it enabled him to
recuperate amazingly. Sometimes he was able to recline
and sleep soundly during that period, but often, espe-
cially in later years, he could not do so, and rested in a
big leather-covered chair with all cares and preoccupa-
tions dismissed from his mind.
By three o'clock he had fully recovered from fatigue,
no matter how trying the duties of the morning had been.
Sometimes these duties included preaching, the ordina-
tion of priests, or the long process of confirming a numer-
ous class. Almost always he arose from his rest thor-
oughly refreshed for new occupations.
He then resumed the reading of his office and at the
conclusion of this long exercise indulged in a cigar —
often his first of the day. He used to say that he did
not smoke until he was past thirty years of age, and even
then not from preference, but in order to prevent other
persons who wished to smoke from being constrained in
his presence.
Until half past four o'clock he remained in his resi-
dence for afternoon audiences, tripping down the steps
924 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
to receive callers as in the morning, and returning at
intervals. It was during this part of the day that priests
of the diocese usually called upon him. When they were
with him, if a shadow rested because of the rigid self-
discipline of ecclesiastical life, he dispelled it with the
sweet sunshine of a joyous and elastic nature. Even as
he celebrated with deep devotion the commemoration of
Golgotha, his heart was buoyant with the eternal hope
born of the deliverance on the first Easter day. To him
life was brightness, and the mercy that removed the stains
of the thief on the Cross was ever ready for the humblest
of men. The thought of diffusing joy was as much a
part of him as the thought of service — in fact, he counted
it service to make men happy as well as good.
When the period for these audiences had ended, he
began his second and longest walk of the day. This
usually lasted for at least an hour and often much longer.
He always traversed several miles in the residential sec-
tion of the city, even in severe weather, bowing as before
to acquaintances seemingly without number. In the
prime of his physical activity he sometimes walked ten
or more miles a day and persons who accompanied him
found the ordeal so exhausting that some of them were
compelled to ask his permission to leave before the trip
was concluded.
He walked at a brisk pace with a long stride, after the
manner of men accustomed to pedestrianism. His head
was usually slightly bowed, but his quick eyes observed
everything around him. Now and then he invited dis-
tinguished visitors to accompany him upon these walks.
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 925
but if he intended to make the journey a long one, he
sometimes warned them in advance that they might find
the exercise trying.
These excursions were a source of immense refresh-
ment to the Cardinal. He varied his route from time to
time, but always returned to the Cathedral, where he
stopped for a visit of fifteen minutes to the Blessed Sacra-
ment. At half past six o'clock came a light supper, fol-
lowed by another cigar.
The heavier cares of the day having now passed, the
Cardinal spent the early evening in the quiet of his study,
seeking the solace of a book or perhaps a chat with an
intimate friend. At half past seven o'clock he said his
rosary, or, if he happened to be going out to dinner, he
performed that act of devotion before leaving the house ;
nothing was permitted to interfere with it. From half
past nine to a quarter of ten he recited his night prayers,
and at ten o'clock he was in bed, allowing nothing, save
some extraordinary circumstance, to interfere.
The total time which he spent in devotions was never
less than three and a half to four hours daily, unless_ he
was afflicted by particularly severe illness. The reading
of his office alone consumed about an hour and a half.
This consists of matins and lauds, three quarters of an
hour; the "Little Hours," twenty minutes to half an hour,
and vespers and complin, fifteen minutes. In the United
States it is customary to say the matins and lauds ^ last,
and Gibbons followed this method. At nine o'clock punc-
tually, in the midst of his busy mornings, he began with
' Of the next day.
926 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the "Little Hours," which many priests, who have far
less exacting duties, are inclined to put off until later.
Added to his numerous acts of daily devotion, he went
to confession once a week at St. Mary's Seminary, and
annually joined in the retreat there.
It was remarked that he never performed his private
devotions where others could see him; his devotional life
was "hidden with Christ in God."
Away from home the Cardinal varied his daily routine
as little as possible. It is safe to say that no Bishop in
the world was more punctilious in attending to his
diocesan duties, which required many journeys. He con-
tinued these journeys up to the time of his last illness,
and until he was eighty years old spared himself nothing
in the way of physical exertion in the course of them.
An instance may be given: When he was seventy-six
years old he made a diocesan trip to Southern Maryland.
Leaving Baltimore in the morning, he went to Washing-
ton, took a boat down the Potomac River in the after-
noon, arrived at Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, at
sunrise the next morning, pontificated at a solemn High
Mass at ten o'clock, attended a jubilee celebration of a
girls' seminary the entire afternoon and received several
hundred of the residents of the town in the evening. On
the five following days he went through virtually the
same protracted exertion, traveling over rough roads in
a carriage, visiting a dozen churches, confirming more
than one thousand persons, preaching many times and
shaking hands with thousands. There was rain on two
of these days, and traveling was difficult.
Visitors from abroad, particularly those from Catholic
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 927
countries, wrote much of their observations of Gibbons
in Baltimore. One of these was Abbe Felix Klein, pro-
fessor in the Catholic Institute of Paris, who thus re-
corded his impressions:
"At four o'clock we started for a drive. Usually the
Cardinal walks, but today he takes a carriage in order
that I may see more of the city. Almost everybody
salutes him.
"During our trip we had time to talk of many persons
and many things. A part of our conversation may per-
haps be repeated without indiscretion. The Cardinal
praised highly the devoted wisdom of Father Magnien,
the former superior of the Baltimore Seminary, who was
foremost in his confidence and friendship. He inquired
about the Montalembert family, who had some relations
with him, and who bear a name that he esteems among the
most honorable in the world. He asked news of Paul
Bourget, whose visit, some years ago, deeply interested
him; he was astonished at the accuracy with which the
author of 'Outre-Mer' was able, without having taken
notes, to reproduce their conversation. . . .
"Our talk drifted to some more general questions.
When the Cardinal speaks of America, his words breathe
the warmest admiration for her institutions; comparison
of them with those of other countries is not able to chill
his sentiments. He rejoices in the splendid possibilities
which the common freedom opens to the Church and to all
well-meaning persons. He is pleased to see Catholics
play the part of good citizens in the affairs of the coun-
try; he himself sets the example whenever occasion arises.
His countrymen like to invite him to the great public
ceremonies, at which a place is reserved for him next to
the President.
"How important the work of Cardinal Gibbons has
been I had fresh opportunities of learning during this
928 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
visit to Baltimore. His Eminence honored me with sev-
eral interviews, and we were together for a long ride
through the beautiful country that surrounds his episco-
pal city. From this intercourse with him, I carried away
a deep impression of the wisdom, prudence and tact with
which this true shepherd of souls has led his people into
the ways of fidelity to Catholic teaching, respect for the
convictions of others, loyalty to country, and generous
sympathy for the noble aspirations of our age.
"At the beginning of my sojourn in America, I should
doubtless have less readily appreciated the mental quali-
ties of the Cardinal, which are solid and just, rather than
conspicuous and daring; or his achievements, which are
substantial, rather than ostentatious; or, again, his elo-
quence, which he prefers should be of practical use, rather
than for literary display; or, finally, that combination of
traits of character which makes a true and genuine man,
rather than the mere appearance of one. I say, I should
not have been prepared at first properly to estimate all
this; but as I became more familiar with American condi-
tions, and more permeated with the American spirit — a
spirit which is simple, practical, frank, optimistic and
tolerant — I understood how greatly favored the Church
has been in having for leaders men like Cardinal Gib-
bons; men who know and love their country, and in their
own character exhibit in a high degree the qualities most
dear to Americans. . . .
"How favored a place Baltimore is for great ecclesias-
tical events, the opportunities it affords for picking up
ecclesiastical information and meeting distinguished
churchmen, I learned from many indications during the
three days I spent there. Mgr. Kain, Archbishop of St.
Louis, who had come to the city some months previously
to seek medical care at a sanitarium of the Sisters of
Charity, died the day after my arrival. He left behind
him the memory of an apostle, of a man of faith, forti-
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 929
tude and wisdom. On the third day of my visit, I found
at dinner with Cardinal Gibbons, Mgr. Falconio, Apos-
tolic Delegate. I remember with what lively sympathy
he expressed himself on the religious conditions of the
United States. He had lived there long enough to un-
derstand those conditions, and to appreciate them cor-
rectly. Happening to discuss with him affairs in France,
and anxious to learn his opinion of the separation of
Church and State in France, I was surprised, and, to be
frank, delighted, to find that the prospect of such a sepa-
ration far from disquieted him. He saw in such an event
the way of deliverance; a rough way, indeed, but the only
one that could lead to a revival of the religious life of
France." '
The distinctive atmosphere which surrounded Gibbons
in his home was best exemplified, perhaps, in his annual
New Year receptions, which he kept up until the year
preceding his death. Not to have attended "the Cardi-
nal's reception" was almost a mark of reproach in certain
circles of Baltimore. The mayor and living ex-mayors
of the city were almost always there, and not infre-
quently the governor of the State. Protestants mingled
with Catholics in the great crowd which stretched far
along Charles Street, all eager to shake the hand of
America's foremost churchman, and to receive the cheer-
ful words and the smile with which he invariably greeted
the callers. Mothers brought their children, many of
whom Gibbons knew by name no less than the promi-
nent men who thronged his residence on such occasions.
His ready wit, flashing suddenly at intervals, kept
every one in good humor; and even in later years he was
"Klein, The Land of the^ Strenuous Life, p. 233 et seq.
930 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
able to preserve the buoyancy of his spirits for hours
while a long line of visitors was passing him. Now and
then he paused to tell a story or to exchange a reminis-
cence. It would have been impossible for him to shake
hands with all who came, and hundreds, wishing to avoid
fatiguing the distinguished host, were in the habit of
leaving their cards and then retiring. Strangers who
occasionally attended these affairs were amazed at the
demonstration of the complete respect and warm affec-
tion on the part of the people, without regard to religious
belief, for one whom they esteemed above all as a man
as much as a churchman, catholic in the broad sense of
that term.
As any one who chose to come could attend these re-
ceptions, embarrassing incidents arose occasionally. At
one of them, twelve girls dressed in white and wearing
broad red sashes appeared. They marched compactly
up the center of the room and knelt before the Cardinal.
One of them who spoke for the group said :
"We represent the Independent Polish Church, and
we come before you to ask that you take us all back into
the Catholic Church, which we regret with all our hearts
having left."
The people of the church in question, after many
stormy dissensions, had previously appealed to Gibbons
to be restored to the Catholic Church in a body, desiring
to continue the use of their own place of worship under
new conditions. He had taken the stand that he could
not assume the burden of the church property, and that
the members, as individuals, should join one of the other
churches in the neighborhood, where there was ample
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 931
room for them. The visit of the girls had been planned,
it developed, as a final appeal.
Gibbons, preserving his composure, asked the spokes-
man:
"Did you go to Mass this morning, my child*?"
"Yes," she replied.
"Where*?" he asked.
"At Holy Rosary Church," she answered, "but it was
crowded all the time — and "
A man who had been conducting the delegation warned
the spokesman at this point to be careful. Gibbons raised
the girl to her feet and said :
"There are plenty of churches for all of you to at-
tend. I thank you for your kindness."
Some flowers and a silk banner which the girls had
brought were deposited upon a table, and they departed,
while the reception proceeded as before.
Gibbons was also accustomed to hold New Year re-
ceptions in Washington, at which members of the cabi-
net. Justices of the Supreme Court, members of the
Senate and House of Representatives, officers of the
Army and Navy and foreign envoys were always present.
He attached great importance to all of his duties in
Washington, and when some high ecclesiastics in Rome
favored severing that city from his archdiocese, he
obtained a promise from Pius X that it would not be
separated.
One would have to go back, perhaps, to Pericles in
Athens for a parallel to Gibbons' overshadowing promi-
nence in the city in which he lived. Of those whom the
attraction of his fame and personality drew to the city,
932 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
some wished to greet him as the author of The Faith of
Our Fathers^ and he was always delighted at such evi-
dences of the wide reach of his appeal. A Swedish noble-
man was one of those who called upon him and said
that he had become a Catholic through the reading of
that book. For many years, he told Gibbons, he had
cherished one great wish, and that was to meet the dis-
tinguished churchman whose treatise had brought him
within the Catholic fold.*
Probably he received more adulation than any other
American of his time, even Presidents, for the plaudits
which are showered upon the head of the State usually
subside in a marked degree after his term of office. There
was never any sign that Gibbons cared for these things.
Promotions and honors even seemed to weary him. When
he was asked upon one occasion if he could recall which
of the honors conferred upon him had given him the
greatest pleasure, he said:
"There was really more of pain than pleasure in these
events. I was but a young priest when I was made a
Bishop, and the appointment filled me more with appre-
hension than with sensations of pleasure. The responsi-
bility which the position involved oppressed me with
anxiety. Nor was the anxiety diminished by any of my
subsequent elevations. Each new advancement only in-
creased the grave sense of the responsibility which it
imposed."
More in the aggregate was written about him in maga-
zines and newspapers than of any other American in all
* Smith and Fitzpatrick, Cardinal Gibbons, Churchman and Citizen,
p. 82.
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 933
the history of the country. This was an index of the
popular estimate of his place in the life of America.
Requests for articles and interviews flooded him, and
he could grant only a small portion of them. During
the last thirty years of his life many of the Associated
Press dispatches sent out from Baltimore were about
himself.
He made no attempt to control what was printed about
him, and did not request that articles obtained from him
in conversation should be submitted to him for revision,
although he was willing to revise them when requested
to do so. At all times he trusted in the freedom of the
press, believing that to be the best corrective of popular
error, even though individuals might suffer. Many men
and women connected with magazines and newspapers
who were sent to him to obtain interviews became warmly
attached to him.
Gibbons had a strong natural disposition to exalt
simple manhood, rather than rank or station. He made
allowance at all times for the frailties and failings of
men, provided these lapses did not spring from wicked-
ness. Scorning affectation himself, he wished all who
came in contact with him to be natural and at their ease.
In his address at the elevation of Archbishop Farley to
the cardinalate in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York,
he said:
'T read the other day a report of some discourses by
eloquent orators of New York. Those discourses, I be-
lieve, were delivered in one of your large halls, and the
object of the speakers was to refer to the Cardinal
[Farley] during the various phases of his singularly
934. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
beneficent life. One of the orators spoke of him as a
priest; another referred to him as a Bishop; still another
as an Archbishop; and the 'fourth as a Cardinal; but, I
think, so far as I can remember, there was no reference
made to Archbishop Farley the man. After all, the man
is everything. It is not the Cardinal that ennobles the
man; it is the man that ennobles the Cardinal."
Sometimes he cited the life stories of the Apostles as
showing that men who rise to great heights do not lack
the faults and weaknesses of human nature. He empha-
sized this point when he read Furcell's biography of
Cardinal Manning, being struck especially by the letter
in which Newman told Maiming that "I do not know
whether I am on my head or my heels when I have active
relations with you." ^ He commented that it made the
portrait of Manning more convincing, in that he was not
represented as superhuman. Speaking once of his diffi-
culty in convincing some members of the Hierarchy and
other churchmen who were on sides opposite to his own
in acute controversies, he exclaimed:
"Ah, the saints on earth I They are sometimes very
trying. But the saints in heaven — that is different."
One of Gibbons' habits was never to be late at an ap-
pointment. Generally he arrived a few minutes before
the time fixed. He was always early in attendance at
Mass, and set an example to tardy associates. On rare
occasions he chided them in a good-natured way because
of their slowness, but usually was inclined to be tolerant
in this respect.
The Rev. L. R. Stickney, the last rector of the Balti-
more Cathedral who served under Gibbons, said of him :
'Purcell, Life of Cardinal Manning, Vol. II, p. 346.
PERSONALITY AND PRIVATE LIFE 935
"In the thousand little details of life I could always
approach him with the freedom of a child, certain of a
patient reception. Now it was a book to be autographed,
now a photograph to be signed, or word brought that a
visitor awaited him in the reception-room. Whatever the
request and how often soever repeated, it was always met
with a courteous 'Thank you for your trouble.'
"Often when official business brought me unexpect-
edly to his room, I would find him at prayer kneeling at
his well-worn prie-dieu, or pacing up and down, his beads
between his fingers, when he would pause for an instant
to take count where he had finished."
That part of Charles Street where the archiepiscopal
house stands has been transformed in part by the en-
croachments of business. Mansions once occupied by the
scions of colonial aristocracy and by leaders of the gay
world of fashion have been given over to trade, preserv-
ing only their architecture as a reminder of the glory
that was once theirs. The Cardinal's residence stands
in the dignified elegance of older days. It is still a
favorite object of interest to visitors; and to hundreds of
Baltimoreans who walk from their uptown homes to the
center of the city it is a landmark. In front of it are
flower beds, which blaze with beauty every Spring and
Summer, when passers-by in Gibbons' lifetime paused to
watch what they learned to call "the Cardinal's tulips."
The flowers were usually of different kinds and colors,
but often there was a bed of brilliant scarlet tulips which
matched the color of the Cardinal's robes of state.
CHAPTER L
SOCIAL HABITS— FRIENDSHIPS
Gibbons was a master of the social graces and in the
exercise of them was probably without a peer in his native
city, where they are cultivated to a degree uncommon
elsewhere in America. He went out rather frequently to
dinner with friends and said: "I dine out because Christ
dined out." Mingling with people in many phases of
life seemed to him to afford opportunities of reaching
them which it was his duty not to neglect. Being in-
formed upon a certain occasion that another Archbishop
customarily declined invitations to dinner, he remarked:
"It is a great pity that the Archbishop refuses the invita-
tions of these people. What an opportunity of doing
good I"*
Arriving for dinner or for attendance at a fashionable
reception, he became instantly the focus of attention.
The guests, young and old, crowded around him to shake
his hand and receive words of greeting and compliment,
which few knew so well how to bestow as he.
Usually he was ready in many instances with a remark
appropriate to the personality of the individual who
approached him, no matter how far that might seem to
be removed from the ken of a Cardinal. He would speak
to the men of recent incidents in their lives, perhaps of
' Smith and Fitzpatrick, Cardinal Gibbons, Churchman and Citizen.
936
SOCIAL HABITS— FRIENDSHIPS 937
a public or business nature, a wedding in a family, visits
from relatives, trips out of town, and a variety of sub-
jects which almost bewildered the crowd with amaze-
ment at the scope of his information. To the young
women he would speak in a fatherly fashion, but with-
out any appearance of patronizing them, noticing little
changes in their appearance, recalling their parties and
social ties, observing if they appeared in good health and
spirits, always leaving the impression of kindness and
personal interest as if he had singled out each person
from the throng to speak to him or her individually.
With the older guests he was inclined to talk of their
children, the progress they were making at school, their
growth and development, when he had seen them last,
and, in general, circumstances of the kind that seemed
to appeal to them and to him most.
Needless to say he was soon beloved and revered even
by persons present who had not known him before, and
what he said and did during the time he remained was
the chief subject of interest and comment. No form of
etiquette seemed too new for him to practise with ease
and grace, unsurpassed by persons with whom social
forms were one of the main concerns of life. He never
remained after nine o'clock in the evening, and, if a din-
ner were the occasion of his visit, he ate but sparingly.
Usually his host was a Catholic, but he attended many
social affairs at which those present were predominantly
Protestants, without any change in his customary de-
meanor, or apparently in the affection with which he was
greeted and the distinction which was accorded to
him.
938 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Naturally he could not accept more than a small frac-
tion of the social invitations which were showered upon
him. In every case his object seemed to be to go where
he could do the most good, or, in some cases, where the
urgency of the invitation was such that a refusal would
leave keen disappointment.
A wealthy Baltimore physician, noted for the dinners
that he gave, at which the viands served met the most ex-
acting standards of Baltimore gastronomies (surely this
is the ultimate in eulogy I) was exceedingly desirous of
having the Cardinal dine with him. He repeatedly urged
the prelate, who was his long-time friend and whom he
regarded as one of the colossal figures of the world, to
come to dinner at his house. In his kindly way the Cardi-
nal put off accepting from time to time, until he discov-
ered that it would give his friend pain if he failed to
do so, and then he consented.
On the evening of the dinner a small but notable com-
pany of leading men and women of the city assembled
at the house of the physician, who had put forth his
utmost exertions to prepare a menu that could not be ex-
celled. At the table, the Cardinal, as usual, was the life
of the party, but his host observed with distress, as the
courses proceeded, that he was not actually eating any-
thing, although he toyed with his fork in the various
dishes. Lynnhaven Bay oysters, Maryland terrapin and
canvasback ducks were passed, the host hoping that the
famous guest would be tempted to eat by each new tri-
umph of the cuisine, but he did not do so. Mentally con-
fessing the failure of his efforts, the host said :
SOCIAL HABITS— FRIENDSHIPS 939
"Your Eminence, perhaps you would like something
else than what is being served. If you will tell me what
you would care to eat, I can have it prepared for you."
The Cardinal paused in an interval of his brilliant
conversation, which fascinated all and at the same time
put them at their ease, and replied, with his radiant
smile :
*Tf you have a nice fresh egg, I think I would enjoy it."
The host was almost ready to collapse for a moment,
but he recovered his equanimity and ordered an egg,
doubtless the freshest in the house, to be cooked accord-
ing to the Cardinal's direction and brought to the table.
And that was the Cardinal's dinner.
Gibbons' whole life was sprinkled with incidents in
which the social aspect played an important part. He
was as far from considering little things beneath him as
he was from considering large things too high for him.
The smaller details of life did not crowd the larger sub-
jects out of his mind. It seemed to be an inexhaustible
repository, in which everything was arranged in order,
to be produced instantly when occasion called for it.
In a sermon upon "Rewards of Faith" ^ he said: "The
most commonplace (of our actions) are generally the
most useful." He proceeded to speak in praise of "those
ordinary courtesies of social life, those little acts of
Christian politeness and charity which are scarcely
noticed," and which he pronounced "often more service-
able than the most brilliant achievements."
'Delivered in the Baltimore Cathedral, November i, 1914.
940 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
He seemed always able to say the right thing at the
right time. In conferring collegiate degrees, of which
he bestowed thousands, he was as inclined to remark to
the recipient: "Your cap and gown are very becoming
to you," as to say "I congratulate you upon the distinc-
tion which you receive."
Of his many personal friendships there were two
which, according to his own testimony, were the closest of
his life. Of the clergy, his strongest tie was with Mon-
signor McManus, pastor of St. John's Church, Baltimore,
whose death on February 28, 1888, he thus recorded in
his journal:
"Monsignor B. J. McManus, the dearest friend I had
among the clergy, died this morning. Deus tibi det
pacem suam^ amice cordis meiT
McManus was a particularly good example of the
simple-hearted priest, a type which always attracted Gib-
bons powerfully, probably for the reason that he saw
in it something of a reflection of himself. He singled
out men of this type, no less among the prelates than the
clergy, as the objects of his closest personal ties; and, in
fact, it may be said that he even sought it out among
the laity as far as its virtues could be attained by them.
Monsignor McManus was a man of works rather than
of words. Of deep spirituality, he also possessed the
executive faculty in no small degree, and developed
St. John's parish as one of the model communities of its
kind in Baltimore, providing ample buildings and equip-
ment for education and social activities, so that it became
in a way a city within a city. The parishioners found in
the Church and the many features of social work con-
SOCIAL HABITS— FRIENDSHIPS 941
nected with it means of innocent diversion, as well as
devotion; and the parish life absorbed their interest and
attention to as great an extent perhaps, as it is possible to
attain in an American city.
No aspect of the welfare of his people was outside of
McManus' keen scrutiny, or failed to receive his atten-
tion. The example of his own godly and devoted life
was an inspiration to all who came in contact with him.
He was a frequent visitor at the residence of Gibbons,
whom he accompanied on many trips, the first of which
appears to have been when Gibbons went from Baltimore
to be installed as Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina. A
picture of McManus was one of the few ornaments of
the Cardinal's simple bedroom which he retained there
up to the time of his death.
Of the laity, the closest friend of Gibbons was Michael
Jenkins, a member of a Maryland Catholic family which
has been identified with the State from early Colonial
days. His father was Thomas C. Jenkins, who at the
time of his death in 1881 was the oldest pew holder of
the Cathedral and the oldest member of its board of
trustees. The family, under the leadership of Michael
Jenkins, built one of the most beautiful churches of Balti-
more.^ He was honored with several Papal decorations.
Many accorded him the place of the foremost business
man of Baltimore. The trust company of which he was
the head was one of the principal financial institutions
of the city, and, in addition, he was one of the controlling
owners of the stock of an extensive railroad system, and
of one of the most successful coastwise steamship lines.
* Corpus Christi. .
942 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Tall, deep-chested, with a large head, he looked every
inch the leader that he was. The business in which he
was so successful was by no means his only occupation.
He was deeply interested in letters and arts and gave
freely of his time and money in the promotion of cultural
influences. As treasurer of the Catholic University he
helped to rescue it from its direst financial experience,
and remained one of its firmest friends and supporters
up to the time of his death.
Jenkins was ever ready to offer his large wealth for
the cause of religion, but could never persuade the Cardi-
nal to take anything for himself. He would have es-
teemed it a privilege to purchase for Gibbons any luxury
or comfort and frequently pressed such offers without
avail. Now and then the Cardinal would accept a gift
for some necessary change in the archiepiscopal residence
which would benefit all the other priests there equally,
but never anything especially for him as an individual.
This long time friend of the Cardinal survived to the
age of seventy-three years, and died in Baltimore in
September, 1915. Gibbons said that the loss "com-
pletely crushed" him. He presided at the funeral in the
Baltimore Cathedral and delivered the eulogy, in the
course of which he made a vow that he would never
ascend the altar without praying for the soul of Michael
Jenkins. In this discourse he said that Jenkins regarded
himself as "not the absolute owner, but the steward of
the v/ealth which Providence had placed in his hands,"
and that "he felt the force of the axiom that our greatest
earthly happiness is found in bringing happiness to
others." The Cardinal added:
SOCIAL HABITS— FRIENDSHIPS 943
"The death of Mr. Jenkins is a personal loss to my-
self which cannot be fathomed. His departure has left
a void in my heart which time cannot fill. It is only
the vital and consoling influence of religion that can
reconcile me to my bereavement. He was my constant
friend and benefactor. He even anticipated my wishes
in lightening my burden.
"O beloved and cherished friend, thou wast a prince
among merchants. Thou wast an uncrowned emperor
among God's noblemen. I loved thee as dearly as
Ambrose loved Theodosius."
Another warm friendship of Gibbons was with Joseph
Friedenwald, one of the most conspicuous members of
the Jewish faith in Baltimore, a man of many charities,
to whom benevolence seemed to be as important as the
extensive business projects which brought him wealth.
The Cardinal's acquaintance with Friedenwald began
when the latter was president of the board of trustees of
Bayview Asylum, an institution maintained by the
municipality of Baltimore for the care of the indigent.
Upon one occasion, while Friedenwald was presiding
over a meeting of the board, a petition from some of the
Catholic clergy for the establishment of a chapel in the
institution for Catholic inmates was presented. Two
members of the board were Catholics and they earnestly
supported the petition, but it was opposed by every other
member except Friedenwald. He held aloof from the
discussion for some time, and then swung the whole board
to the side of the Catholic members by a vigorous en-
dorsement of the project of establishing the chapel.
Gibbons heard of this act and wrote a letter to Fried-
enwald expressing his warm thanks, which he supple-
944 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
mented later in a personal conversation. These two men
of strong character, who agreed in many things outside of
religious creed, learned to trust and admire each other,
and their ties soon deepened into affection. Friedenwald
became one of the privileged callers at the Cardinal's
residence, where he found a cordial welcome and enjoyed
delightful chats with his distinguished friend. While
on a trip to Europe, he obtained a handsome cane of
tortoise shell, in the gold handle of which were secreted
quotations from the Scriptures in English and Hebrew,
worked on vellum. Upon his return he presented this
cane to the Cardinal, who prized it among the most
cherished of the many personal gifts that were made
to him.
When Friedenwald was stricken with a fatal illness in
1910, Gibbons visited him at his residence, where the
meeting between these friends and their affectionate con-
versation produced a profound impression upon the
Jewish family. After Friedenwald's death Gibbons said :
'T lose one of the best friends I had. Religious dif-
ferences were forgotten in the friendship between us.
He was upright, true and faithful, and one knew him
but to love him."
Friedenwald bequeathed $2000 to the Cardinal in his
will, much to the prelate's surprise.
Gibbons' trait of overwhelming determination was
shown strikingly in the rigid manner in which he regu-
lated the general outlines of his life. When he had
reached old age he once said that he had never written
anything which he regretted. It was his intense alertness
of mind which enabled him to avoid the mistakes com-
SOCIAL HABITS— FRIENDSHIPS 945
mon to most men. Prudence characterized his conduct at
all times, but it was far from the prudence of timidity.
He could speak and act instantly with a discretion that
seemed to be the product of long thought and medita-
tion. Always he kept in mind the fact that an immature
expression by a Catholic prelate in America would be
likely to do great harm to the cause of religion. That
he maintained his poise when he said so much, and upon
so many different subjects, was extraordinary.
The atmosphere of religion, or rather of the fruits of
religion in the individual, accompanied him everywhere.
Sometimes the thought must have come to him with con-
siderable force from the suggestions of others that his
talents might have enabled him to attain even greater
fame and power outside of ecclesiastical life. There
was no evidence that this thought ever produced any re-
gret on his part. Speaking on his seventy-sixth birthday
of the reflections which the anniversary called up, he said :
"I am contented ; happy. It is much to be given to any
mortal to be able to say that. If it were given to me
to live all of these seventy-six years again, I should not
wish them different; I should be a priest. The calling
of a priest is a difficult one, but there is sublime happi-
ness in the dedication of one's self to service."
He saw no attraction, he said on the same occasion, in
the work of a representative in civil government, a lawyer
or a physician, equal to that of an "Ambassador of
Christ." In the Church he felt that he could reach the
great fundamental issues with which the welfare of
humanity is bound up without the obscurity which so
often clouds them in the mind of the time-server.
946 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
With all his winning graces of personality, Gibbons
was one of the most formidable of men if any one at-
tempted deliberately to obstruct one of his important
purposes, to take improper advantage of him, or to cross
him unnecessarily. In such instances his form, usually
slightly bent, would straighten, his mobile face would
assume a fixed expression of irresistible determination,
and his eye would seem like a flaming torch. This mood
was rare with him, but it was in evidence upon not a few
occasions in the total of his long life.
It was sometimes called forth by persons who went
to him for purposes of intrigue, attempting to make use
of the great power of his office or his personal power for
their own ends. Some of these persons wished to obtain
the Church's sanction in some form for divorce proceed-
ings. Others wished him to use improperly his influence
over other churchmen or over public officials. Still others
used pressure to induce him to commit ill judged acts.
Like all men as conspicuous as he, he was naturally
beset by no small number of persons of the crank type
in one form or another, who possessed sufficient shrewd-
ness to obtain access to him, or even obtained letters of
introduction from good sources. Many men tried hard
to sway him in behalf of, or in opposition to, some or-
ganization which wished to derive benefit from the favor
of the Church. His mood of resolute resistance to dan-
gerous opposition was in clear evidence in the great fights
which he waged. There was no more leonine opponent
than Gibbons when aroused. Those who thought to
cajole or trifle with him soon learned this to their cost.
CHAPTER LI
RELATIONS WITH PROTESTANTS
Gibbons' relations with Protestants were marked by
complete consistency. He was never known to speak
uncharitably of them or to them, and addressed them
all as "brethren." Protestant ministers as well as lay-
men being among his warmest personal friends, he showed
no hesitation whatever in cooperating with them in good
works. He was obviously willing to go to extraordinary
lengths to avoid countenancing any unkind word about
those who differed from him in creed.
On one occasion when a group of Protestant clergymen
who held periodical meetings in Baltimore had engaged
in a discussion which bore rather severely upon the
Catholic Church, a friend who talked with him on the
subject expressed condemnation of this in strong terms
which seemed to call for some response by Gibbons. The
Cardinal struggled within himself between the desire
not to pain his friend by complete silence on the subject,
and a counterbalancing desire to say nothing which might
appear to be uncharitable to Protestants. As the friend
proceeded with his denunciation, it seemed almost too
much to expect of human nature for the Cardinal not
to make some kind of a response. At length he said, with
the utmost forgiveness apparent in his manner as well
as his voice: "Well, you know these ministers have to
find topics to discuss at their meetings." This was the
947
948 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
nearest approach, according to one intimately acquainted
with him, which he was ever known to make toward un-
friendly comment upon Protestants.
His general attitude in reference to the subject was
illustrated in a Christmas greeting which he was asked
to prepare in 1911. The greeting read :
"To all Christian brethren, a Merry Christmas. With
the New Year may there dawn a reign of peace among
the nations of the world.
"James Cardinal Gibbons."
His stand in this respect was all the more conspicuous,
because he was the modern "Defender of the Faith," his
book, The Faith of Our Fathers, having earned that title
for him preeminently.
He never sought precedence in assemblages where
Protestant Bishops were present, but he himself bore
testimony to the fact that he never failed to receive it on
such occasions. One of the many instances when this
question was directly presented to him was at the dedi-
cation of a site for an industrial exposition which it was
proposed to hold in Baltimore. Bishop Paret, of the
Protestant Episcopal diocese of Maryland, a stanch up-
holder of his own faith, who was sometimes disposed to
be punctilious in asserting its prerogatives, was standing
near the Cardinal when the procession for the dedication
exercises was about to form. Perhaps embarrassed for a
moment, he turned to the Cardinal and said :
"Your Eminence, I do not know what is the custom in
your church, but in my church the inferior precedes the
superior."
With his beaming smile the Cardinal replied: "My
RELATIONS WITH PROTESTANTS 949
dear brother, we will walk together," and he took Bishop
Paret's arm as the procession moved.
It will be observed that the Bishop addressed him as
"your Eminence," which complied with ecclesiastical
etiquette. The Cardinal, not wishing to address the
Bishop by an inferior title, or by any shading of words
to indicate that the question of precedence was involved,
called him "my dear brother."
One evening while the Cardinal was chatting with a
friend in the quietude of his study, the subject of the
relative precedence of civil and ecclesiastical authorities
on public occasions, then recently brought to public at-
tention by an incident in which he was not a participant,
came up. The Cardinal sprang up from his chair, re-
marking: "I will show you my rule in such matters."
Walking to a bookshelf he took out a copy of the
Bible and read the following from the fourteenth chap-
ter of St. Luke :
"And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house
of one of the chief of the Pharisees on the Sabbath day
to eat bread that they watched him.
"And he spoke a parable also to them that were in-
vited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table,
saying to them :
"When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in
the first place; lest perhaps one more honorable than thou
be invited by him;
"And he that invited thee and him come and say to
thee: Give this man place. And then thou begin with
shame to take the lowest place.
"But when thou art invited, go and sit down in the
lowest place; that when he that invited thee cometh.
950 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
he may say to thee : Friend, go up higher. Then shalt
thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee.
"Because every one that exalteth himself shall be
humbled ; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
His liberality of view in regard to Protestants was
strikingly shown in January, 1906, when the Baltimore
committee of the Prohibition Party arranged a meeting
in honor of W. H. Berry, then State Treasurer of Penn-
sylvania, who had recently been elected triumphantly
after a struggle against political corruption in that State.
The Cardinal promptly accepted an invitation to serve as
a vice-president of the meeting, being desirous of giving
public recognition to Berry's fight against civic abuses,
although he was not in sympathy with national prohibi-
tion. The committee had intended to hold the meeting
in a public hall, but later changed the place to Eutaw
Street Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the historic
buildings of Methodism in America, identified with
memories of Francis Asbury. When it was decided to
make this change, the committee, fearing an embarrassing
incident, sent a letter to the Cardinal giving notice of
it, and asking if, under the circumstances, he wished to
have his name withdrawn from the list of officers.
"The holding of a civic meeting in a Protestant
church," he replied, "does not excite any religious scruples
in me. I gladly allow the use of my name as one of
the vice-presidents of the meeting."
When the Cardinal appeared in the church, he was
vigorously applauded. He expressed to Berry his warm
commendation of the battle against political evils in
Pennsylvania.
RELATIONS WITH PROTESTANTS 951
Another illustration of the position which the Cardinal
occupied in the hearts of his Protestant neighbors was
given at a mass meeting in Brown Memorial Church,
Baltimore, December 14, 1906, called to express disap-
proval of the policy of Leopold, the Belgian King, in
the Congo State. One of the speakers at the meeting was
the Rev. H. Grattan Guinness, a leader in the Congo
agitation in Great Britain, who had come to the United
States for the purpose of endeavoring to induce the Wash-
ington government to join England in intervention in
the Congo. As a rule. Catholics defended the policy of
King Leopold, reflecting the views of the large number
of missionaries of their faith who were actively laboring
among the natives. Gibbons on several occasions had
expressed the same opinions, but he was not active in
the controversy, and at no time interfered in it. His
general position on the subject was shown in the follow-
ing extract from a letter which he wrote to the Rev.
Edward Everett Hale in October, 1904, expressing his
regret at inability to attend a peace conference in Boston :
"Had I been able to be present, I would have made it
my duty to say a word in vindication of the policy of
Belgium in the Congo State. The representatives of the
different powers at the Berlin Conference were compelled
to express their admiration and praise of the noble ideals
of the founder of the Congo State and the splendid re-
sults achieved through his humane policy."
Guinness, after describing to the meeting in Baltimore
conditions in the Congo from his point of view, said
at the close of his address :
952 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"The United States and Britain, long ere this, would
have got together and put an end to the atrocities in the
Congo, but for one man in this country. The one strong
hand that has been keeping this thing going is none other
than that of Cardinal Gibbons."
In some localities such a statement might have passed
unnoticed ; but in the Baltimore Church there was a com-
motion in an instant. Two of the most prominent Prot-
estant pastors in the city rose to defend the Cardinal.
They were the Rev. John T. Stone, a Presbyterian, pas-
tor of the church in which the meeting was held, and the
Rev. Wilbur F. Sheridan, pastor of Mount Vernon Place
Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the leading congre-
gations of that denomination in the city. Stone remarked
earnestly that he greatly deplored the words of the
speaker in reference to Cardinal Gibbons. Sheridan said :
"Pardon me, I entertain a profound regard for Cardi-
nal Gibbons, whom I admire for his catholicity of view.
I cannot think that such can be the case."
Guinness seemed dumfounded, but there was abundant
evidence that the two Protestant ministers were express-
ing the emphatic view of virtually all who were present.
At the request of Stone, the English speaker modified his
statement almost immediately from the platform, and
left the church with a new view of the regard in which
Cardinal Gibbons was held in his home city.
Upon the occasion of Gibbons' forty-ninth anniversary
in the priesthood, some tributes to him from Protestant
pastors were printed in a Baltimore newspaper.* One
' The Sun.
RELATIONS WITH PROTESTANTS 953
of these was from the Rev. Dr. J. F. Heisse, formerly a
presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
at that time one of the city pastors, who said :
"As a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, I
join with my brethren of the various religious denomi-
nations in congratulating Cardinal Gibbons. . . . He
has stood as a towering bulwark for civic and moral right-
eousness in our midst. . . . Many years of happiness to
this distinguished prelate of the Roman Catholic
Church!"
The tribute of the Rev. Dr. H. W. Schneeberger,
rabbi of one of the principal Jewish temples of the city,
was:
"Regardless of faith, men should recognize godliness
wherever found. Cardinal Gibbons' life has been a con-
stant expression of good. He is a living example of un-
selfishness. . . . Long life to the grand old man who
'with malice toward none and charity for all' has labored
so long and faithfully for the uplift of humanity."
People of all creeds instinctively turned to the Cardi-
nal to do favors for them, relying upon his kindness of
heart. Among such were two Jewish residents of New
York City, who decided to make a tour abroad. One of
the plans which they formed was to obtain an audience
with Pope Pius X, but they were at a loss as to how this
could be arranged. At length the thought of soliciting
Cardinal Gibbons' powerful aid came to them; but they
realized that they had no claim upon the Cardinal's
favor.
It occurred to them that they might obtain some assist-
ance from a friend, Jacob Epstein, a Jewish merchant
954 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
who had risen from small beginnings in Baltimore to the
proprietorship of one of the largest wholesale establish-
ments in that city. They applied to him.
Epstein consulted one of the Cardinal's friends who
he thought might have some influence, asking if anything
could be done in the case. The friend, esteeming Epstein
highly, and happening to know that the Cardinal also
esteemed him for his numerous works of benevolence,
agreed to undertake the mission. He obtained from
Epstein the names of the two persons who wished to be
received by the Pope, and proceeded to the Cardinal's
residence, where he conveyed the request. Gibbons an-
swered without a moment's hesitation :
"I shall be happy to do what Mr. Epstein wishes, but'
the request for the audience must come from the Arch-
bishop of New York, as the persons who desire it reside
in that diocese. I shall write at once a letter to the Arch-
bishop, earnestly requesting that the favor be granted,
and I have no doubt that he will comply."
Calling his secretary, he dictated a letter in which he
conveyed the request to the Archbishop with all the
emphasis which he might have summoned in behalf of
one of his closest personal friends. It was soon prepared
for delivery to Epstein. Before the visitor departed,
Gibbons remarked:
"There is something else which I shall be glad if you
will take to Mr. Epstein."
Entering his bedroom, he soon emerged with a hand-
some bronze medal, one of a comparatively small number
designed by a sculptor of note in honor of his then recent
RELATIONS WITH PROTESTANTS 955
golden jubilee as priest and his silver jubilee as Cardinal.
He remarked:
"Please present this to your friend with my compli-
ments. I am glad to be able to send it to him. Tell
him also that I have been happy to comply with his
request."
The Cardinal, knowing that Epstein was a lover of
art, was well aware that the medal would be valued by
its recipient for the excellence of the sculptor's work as
well as for other considerations. The merchant treasured
it for this reason, but still more for the kindness of heart
and broad charity, knowing no religious barriers, which
its presentation represented to him.
Gibbons' fixed rule in doing good was to make no dis-
tinction between those who thought as he did and those
who thought differently. The greater the need, the
greater the service which he sought to bestow. This lat-
ter appeared to be the only general distinction which he
was inclined to make.
CHAPTER LII
HEALTH AND RECREATIONS
To a friend who inquired solicitously as to his health,
Gibbons once said : "I am always at the work bench, and
am too busy to be sick." His meaning was that he was
so preoccupied that he desisted from his labors only under
the pressure of prostrating illness, which, in his case, was
rare. He suffered from almost innumerable attacks of
slight sickness, to which his intense concentration upon
his tasks prevented him from yielding.
The general functions of his body were often so slug-
gish that he worked for days and even weeks at a time
against a serious handicap of impaired vigor. One of
the illnesses from which he suffered rather frequently
he used to call "a cold on the stomach." The phrase, as
a description of a physical condition, had been in general
use in his youth. It meant that he had caught cold and
in the general physical decline which accompanies a cold
the stomach, as the weakest organ, suffered most. His
digestion was a barometer of his general health.
Believing that the American people dose themselves
with too many drugs, he often counteracted slight illness
by doing what he called "starving himself" instead of
resorting to medicine. On these occasions he would
abstain resolutely from food for considerable periods, or
take barely enough to prevent collapse. Meanwhile he
956
HEALTH AND RECREATIONS 957
continued his almost incessant work. He would become
extraordinarily pale, but showed no other sign of physical
exhaustion, and his mental activity was wholly un-
affected.
With him, body and mind seemed to be divorced. His
intellect was always robust and intensely active and
appeared to be ready for the greatest tasks when his
body was scarcely strong enough to undergo even small
exertion.
Almost all of his slight illnesses were traced directly
to overwork, and as he possessed marvelous recuperative
power they soon passed. Even a period of rest as scant
as five minutes would refresh him to a marked degree
after the performance of a long and fatiguing duty.
His physician watched the distinguished patient care-
fully, but Gibbons often failed to summon him when
most men would have been disposed to do so. This was
apparently for the reason that he wished to shun all
thought of invalidism, and thus to avoid forming the
habit of considering himself sick. Anxious thoughts of
himself and of his own comfort and convenience had
virtually no part in his outlook. It was evident that
he formed a resolution rather early in life to do with
the utmost diligence the work which fell to him, heed-
ing not the consequences to himself, and that he was per-
fectly willing to pass from this world when the summons
came. He preferred that when it did ccHne it should find
him at the post of duty.
Exercise in the open air gave him strong muscles, even
in old age. On a visit to New York when he was well
past eighty several automobiles containing Church digni-
958 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
taries awaited him at the railroad station, but he turned
from their easy allurements and proposed a walk to the
archiepiscopal residence, a mile and a half distant. Soon
he was swinging up Fifth Avenue at a fast pace with a
clerical companion, chatting vivaciously as he passed
through the hurrying throng.
There was something masterful in him that gave the
appearance of physical as well as intellectual strength
to not a few persons who came in contact with him for
the first time. This deceptive impression was due to
the exceptional robustness of his mind and the vigor and
keenness denoted by his countenance, which distracted
attention from the comparative frailness of the body.
His motions were rapid and graceful, but there was in
them no trace of nervousness or hurry. His nerves, like
his mind, appeared to possess a giant's strength.
In conversation when he was seventy-nine years old he
spoke thus of his health and endurance after returning
from a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, in the course of
which the strain that he underwent was excessive:
"My only pastorate, that at Canton, nearly broke me
down. I was forced to officiate in two churches, several
miles apart, on Sunday mornings, and as I celebrated a
late Mass, I fasted every Sunday until one o'clock or
later. When I was through with the last service, I could
not eat, and sometimes felt as if I were ready to collapse.
Down in North Carolina and Virginia, I habitually over-
worked and overworried, going night and day.
"After I succeeded to the See of Baltimore, I had some
of the worst strains of all. The greatest was the Third
Plenary Council, from the labor and responsibility of
which I did not have a day's respite from the autumn of
HEALTH AND RECREATIONS 959
1883 to December, 1884. My hands trembled so greatly
when I opened the Council that some of the prelates said
I could not last through it. But [this with a smile] I
did last through it and have outlasted every one of them."
The visitor to whom he was speaking asked, "Were
you equal to the demands upon you in Knoxville'?"
"It was a long trip down there — eighteen hours — ^but
on Friday night, after my arrival, I had a good sleep
and that put me in better condition," the Cardinal re-
plied. "On Saturday there were so many things to do
that I became nervous and when I retired Saturday night,
sleep could not be coaxed. I had begun to take cold,
my limbs were seized with a cramp and I shivered all
over. After enduring this for some time, a profuse per-
spiration broke out. I scarcely had two hours' sleep that
night, and as I had to preach twice the next day, I came
near vowing that I would never be caught that way again.
But the morning was bright and that helped to pick me
up. I managed to get through everything that was as-
signed to me and that night I slept nine hours. On Mon-
day I was ready for anything."
The visitor inquired, "How does your ability to un-
dergo physical fatigue now compare with your capacity
in middle lifer
"It is fully as great," the Cardinal said, "except that I
must be careful not to load myself with the necessity of
too much sustained effort. I do not know to what my
endurance should be attributed, unless it be to care of my-
self and to moderation. Today I was reading of Mr.
Spence [a Baltimore financier who had just passed his
ninety-eighth birthday] and those things seem to be his
reliance, also. I observed that he smokes four cigars a
960 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
day, which is about my own allowance. No doubt I
must have had a good deal of vitality even when I
thought myself weakest.
"There is a record of longevity in my family on my
mother's side, although my father died comparatively
young. My oldest sister is still living and my mother's
father lived to a great age. Perhaps heredity accounts
in some degree for the marvelous way in which I have
been preserved.
"Worry is what kills. My direct observation through-
out my life is that this is the cause of most of the physical
breakdowns. I have learned not to burden myself with
undue solicitude for the morrow."
Gibbons' eyesight was remarkable. Even in age he
was able to read the finest type without the aid of glasses,
although when reading at night by artificial light he
often used spectacles.
His favorite refuge when he needed a period of rest
and recreation was at the homes of the Shriver
family at Union Mills, seven miles from Westminster,
one of the large towns of Maryland. There were
two of these homes, that of T. Herbert Shriver,
which the Cardinal used to call "The Lower House or
the House of Commons" ; and that of B. Frank Shriver,
a brother of the former, which he called "The Upper
House or the House of Lords." They are situated in a
region of rare rural beauty. The pious family life of the
Shrivers was an inspiration to Gibbons, and the attention
which they bestowed upon him made him always at ease
when he was their guest. Of simple and unostentatious
habits himself, and possessing a pronounced social in-
stinct, he always felt at home in such a circle.
CARDIXAL GIBBONS READY FOR A WALK
He is shou-n seated with Bishop O'Connell. of Richmond, on the porch
of the residence of B. Frank Shricer at Union Mills, Md. The photo-
graph ivas taken in WIS.
HEALTH AND RECREATIONS 961
He had known the Shrivers since early days. Her-
bert Shriver had attended St. Charles College in prepara-
tion for the priesthood, but a serious physical injury com-
pelled him to abandon that career. In 1868, the year in
which Gibbons was made a Bishop, he celebrated the first
Mass ever said in the family chapel at Union Mills.
Herbert Shriver survived for many years and at his death
Miss Mary O. Shriver presided over the home.
When Gibbons was visiting at Union Mills he said
Mass at seven o'clock every morning in the chapel. He
wrote much, remaining in his room during a consider-
able part of the day, but took long walks and always his
after dinner nap, besides pitching quoits occasionally.
He excelled in this latter sport, being considered one of
the best players in Maryland.
In the evening, after supper, the Cardinal joined the
family group and chatted in high spirits, almost as of
youth. In the personal affairs of the members of the
household, including their progress in business life, he
took a deep interest and he was their favorite friend and
adviser. Often he entertained the group with some of
the anecdotes of which he seemed to possess a never
failing supply.
For a number of years one of his favorite resorts for
a brief rest in summer was Southampton, Long Island,
where he was the guest of clerical friends. His presence
at that seaside town usually attracted a number of visi-
tors from New York, who attended Mass in the local
church when he was present. Near-by are pleasant walks
and drives, and the Cardinal found the air peculiarly con-
ducive to rest and sleep.
962 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Still another refuge where he found rest and happiness
in later years was the home of Martin Maloney at Spring
Lake, New Jersey, where he received solicitous attention
and often found relief from the heat in the middle of
summer. Mr. Maloney was a Papal marquis, having re-
ceived that honor on account of his many philanthropies.
The Cardinal was accustomed to spend a part of every
Lent in New Orleans with the surviving members of his
family. When the centenary anniversary of the See. of
New Orleans, the second in the United States, was ob-
served in 1893, he took a prominent part in the services.
Often duty required him to remain in Baltimore in
midsummer. He found temporary relief during a portion
of the day by sitting upon a little back porch attached to
his residence, where there was usually a breeze, and where
his gaze looked out over his beloved Cathedral. He
would chat there in the afternoons with callers, clerical
or lay, and the words of wisdom and helpfulness which
fell from his lips on these occasions were treasured by
many.
The extent to which he continued his activity despite
advancing years may be gathered from a summary of his
labors in 1912, when he was seventy-eight years old.
During that year he confirmed 7236 persons. This alone
was a task of magnitude for a young man. Before or
after confirmation ceremonies, he always preached and
at the close held a reception for the parishioners. The
largest class which he confirmed in that year consisted of
636 persons. He went through the long ceremony of
raising thirty-three young men to the priesthood, per-
formed marriages, baptized a number of persons and heard
HEALTH AND RECREATIONS 963
confessions many times in the Cathedral, like any priest
of his household. In addition, he was present at a num-
ber of funerals. He conferred the pallium upon Arch-
bishop Prendergast, of Philadelphia, made the long trip
to Wichita, Kansas, to dedicate a Cathedral, and shared
in all other important ceremonial events of general inter-
est to the Church in the United States. During the year
he did not fail to continue to take part, as usual, in public
activities, the most notable of which was the offering of
the opening prayer at the Democratic National Conven-
tion in Baltimore.
Late in Gibbons' life some of the younger priests of the
Baltimore diocese wished a coadjutor Archbishop to be
appointed, but his resolute action prevented the plan from
being carried into effect, although he consented to accept
the services of an auxiliary Bishop. He felt fully equal
— indeed there could be no doubt that he was equal — to
the task that he carried on so long and with such signal
success that the number of churches in the diocese was
tripled during his incumbency. Like many who possess
in a marked degree the traits of a commander, he was
not disposed to share his authority.
His life was seriously imperiled by a driving accident
in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, July 30, 1891. When
he was elevated to the cardinalate, the clergy of the dio-
cese presented to him a two-seated brougham, which he
kept at the public stable of James Martin, near his resi-
dence, as he could not be persuaded to maintain a private
livery. If occasion required a drive, he used horses hired
from Martin; and in summer he sometimes enjoyed the
air of the park with Martin on the box of his carriage.
964 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
On this occasion Martin was driving homeward when
the pole of the brougham broke and the horses began a
mad flight. The driver's utmost efforts were not suffi-
cient to check them, but he was able to keep them in the
road. After they had dashed ahead fully three quarters
of a mile, they approached a large stone gateway, which
then stood at the Mount Royal entrance of the park, and
Martin guided them against it, stopping their flight and
severely injuring them by the impact. Gibbons, who had
remained calm, though he fully realized his danger,
alighted unhurt and was taken to his residence in an-
other carriage which passed.
He was keenly conscious that the driver's courage, cool-
ness and skill had saved his life, and, as a mark of grati-
tude, presented to Martin one of two large gold medals
which he had received from Leo XIII, bearing on one side
a bas-relief portrait of the Pontiff and on the other an
interior view of the basilica of St. Peter's in Rome. He
had these words engraved upon the medal in addition to
the previous inscription:
"Presented to James Martin, Jr., by his Eminence
Cardinal Gibbons, August i, 1891, as a recognition of
his courage and self-possession displayed July 30, 1891."
For many years Martin continued to drive him, and he
always felt safe in the hands of that devoted and intrepid
man.
Although accustomed to making long journeys by rail-
road and steamship for many years, he was never injured
by accident on land or sea. While returning from New
Orleans November 16, 1899, after performing the cere-
HEALTH AND RECREATIONS 965
mony of the marriage of his niece, Katherine, a daughter
of his brother, John T. Gibbons, he had a narrow escape
at Pleasure Ridge Park, near Louisville, Kentucky. His
train was in a collision in which five persons were severely
hurt. Gibbons was at breakfast when the table was
thrown to one side, the dishes were scattered and all
of those in the car were severely shaken. He was able
to retain his seat, but persons who were near him were
hurled from their chairs by the impact.
CHAPTER LIII
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS
Anecdotes flowed from Gibbons in a double sense.
He was one of the best of story-tellers, and he was the
subject of far more stories than he told. Wherever he
went he gave rise to anecdotes of himself which threw
real light upon his character. So exceptionally large was
the number of them that a relation of some of those which
have been verified will throw useful — perhaps even neces-
sary— light upon his personality.
That these anecdotes were so voluminous and varied
was due to the force of his individuality and to the versa-
tility of his reach. Most of them were circulated by
members of his household or by prelates, clergy and lay-
men from outside who came in close contact with him in
Baltimore. But wherever he went — Rome, Washington,
New York, Chicago, New Orleans and elsewhere — they
seemed to spring up abundantly.
His life was full of the picturesque and unusual at
all times. The ordinary ways of men were not his ways.
His marked personality was evident even to a cursory
observer.^
*The sources of the stories of Cardinal Gibbons as given here are
conversations with him, personal observations by the author, accounts by
some of the Cardinal's closest friends, and the book Cardinal Gibbons,
Churchman and Citizen, by Smith and Fitzpatrick. All of these stories
have been fully confirmed, except in some cases as to the dialogue, which
is naturally the version of the person who related the anecdote. In
966
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 967
A large proportion of the stories that were told of him
concerned children, whose artless natures he fathomed
with rare comprehension and in whose company he always
took especial delight. His playfulness with altar boys
outside of church was a commonplace fact to his entou-
rage, but persons who saw instances of it for the first time
were much impressed. Two of these boys were sent to
his study to accompany him to the Cathedral a few min-
utes before each service there in which he took part. Any
one unaware of what almost invariably followed their
arrival would have been puzzled to see them approaching
the private room of the distinguished churchman beaming
with smiles of anticipation. The reason was soon ap-
parent. When he opened the door in response to their
gentle knock, he would assume a half-quizzical expres-
sion of playful surprise and would greet them with some
such remark as this:
"Gentlemen, to what am I indebted for the honor of
this visits Dee-lighted, as Mr. Roosevelt would say."
Knowing the fondness of children for innocent plays
of make-believe. Gibbons would keep up his raillery for
some minutes. There was usually a little time to wait
before starting for the Cathedral, and he would sink into
one of the big chairs in his room, perhaps beside his bay
window, and amuse the boys and himself in the interval
by propounding conundrums and finally giving the an-
swers. The lads, in high glee, showed no trace of em-
barrassment, but talked to and laughed with Gibbons
every case, however, the dialogue represents the Cardinal's customary
manner of speaking. A number of anecdotes of him have been given
on previous pages of this work where they seemed apropos of some
particular subject.
968 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
as if he had been a benevolent relative, familiar to their
sight, who knew how to interest and please them.
After the service, it was the duty of the boys to accom-
pany him back to his residence. As they reached the foot
of the stairs leading to his study he would often put his
arms around their necks and trip rapidly upward with
them. Occasionally, if the boys were small, he would
lift one of them under each arm and carry them bodily
up the steps. At the top he would place them on their
feet again and go with them to his study, where there was
a further happy interchange of dialogue adapted to boy-
ish fancy. Before they left, he always gave each of them
a little present, usually a book or a box of candy.
He was often in a merry mood also with his "door
boys," the young ushers who received the cards of visi-
tors and took them to him or to other members of his
household. A friend who was accustomed to call upon
him frequently in the evenings usually telephoned to the
archiepiscopal residence in advance to learn if the Car-
dinal would be at home. Sometimes it was the door boy
who answered the telephone, and on one occasion of that
kind the Cardinal's friend found that a new boy had
been installed. The lad carried the message as usual to
Gibbons' room, and returned with the reply that he
would be at home. Upon arriving at the archiepiscopal
residence that evening, the front door was opened for the
Cardinal's friend by the new usher, to whom he said:
"Did you tell his Eminence that I would call?"
"Yes," was the reply.
"What did he say?" was the next inquiry.
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 969
"Oh," the door boy responded, "he said, 'Well, have
you any objection^' I told him 'No'; and he said it
would be all right."
Most of the door boys remained at the Cardinal's resi-
dence several years each. As they became older, he ob-
tained, where it was helpful to do so, positions in which
they could advance themselves in some useful line of
work. Not infrequently he gave them gratuities which
he called "spending change."
His interest in children was also shown by his solici-
tude for Catholic institutions conducted for their welfare
in the diocese of Baltimore, and even for the individuals
who were cared for in those institutions. One day in
June, 1911, he attended a meeting of those interested in
St. James' Home for Boys. While there, among the waifs
of the city, he was reminded that at almost the same time
on the preceding day he had dined with President Taft
at the White House. In the course of his visit to the
boys he made a speech to them, telling them that Lincoln
had chopped wood and Garfield had driven a mule on a
canal path. "The moral of this," he said, "is that boys,
no matter what their condition in youth, can attain high
stations in life."
He was accustomed to visit St. James' Home several
times a year to talk with the boys, among whom his per-
sonal influence amounted to much. They loved and re-
vered him, considering him a stanch friend and a pat-
tern of manliness and courtesy, as well as a model Ameri-
can, for he liked to inculcate patriotism in the young.
In addition to this, he received reports of progress at the
970 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Home. When Brother Leo, the director of the institu-
tion, called upon him at his residence at one time to pre-
sent a report of that kind Gibbons asked :
"How many boys are there at the home'?"
"Sixty-seven," the director answered.
"How many are at work*?" was the next question.
The director replied with satisfaction: "All are at
work, and employment could be found for twenty-five
more."
Gibbons' exclamation "Thanks be to God !" could not
have been more fervent if some great event had been the
cause of it.
His zeal was also exceptional for the welfare of the
lads at St. Mary's Industrial School in his home city.
The discipline of the school was naturally an important
consideration, and, as at St. James' Home, his direct in-
fluence was an important part of it.
An incident which illustrated this occurred in May,
1908. A little before that time some incorrigible boys
who were in custody at a State reformatory in Maryland
had escaped from the institution, and it was charged that
when they were recaptured they were cruelly beaten with
a leather strap. The Baltimore newspapers contained
long accounts of the charges and of the subsequent official
investigation. This was not lost upon the Cardinal, who
was intensely alert as to everything going on around him.
A short time afterward two boys at St. Mary's Indus-
trial School caught the fever of trying to escape. They
overpowered a watchman in their dormitory by means of
a surprise attack, seized the keys from him when he was
helpless, and made a dash to open the way not only for
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 971
themselves, but for the others in the dormitory to break
out. The other boys, however, gave a convincing demon-
stration of their loyalty to the institution which was
caring for them by pouncing upon the two would-be
leaders, taking the keys from them and giving them a
beating.
The next day the newspapers printed full accounts of
this affair, which was supposed to have especial interest
for the public mind because of the current stories charg-
ing cruelty at the institution of the same kind maintained
by the State. Gibbons read these accounts with deep
anxiety. He learned that the offenders had been placed
in temporary confinement, and that the final action to be
taken in their cases was as yet undecided by Brother
Paul, his close friend, the director of the Industrial
School.
Several days later the Cardinal visited the school, and
confirmed two hundred boys. The attempt to escape
weighed upon his mind, and he sent for the two offenders.
They were brought into his presence expecting to receive
an austere reproof which would add to their humiliation
and cause their punishment to be more galling. But the
simple, kindly man, whose red cap showed his rank, did
the unexpected — to the boys. It happened that they were
Protestants, for though St. Mary's is chiefly for Catholic
boys, some non-Catholics were committed there by Mary-
land magistrates when they could not be cared for else-
where.
Abashed at first, they listened with wonder as the
Cardinal began to speak to them in sympathetic, fatherly
tones. This was the substance of what he said :
972 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Boys, you are very young yet, and do not know as
much about your duty to others as older persons are ex-
pected to know. Perhaps without realizing it, you have
done a great wrong to that poor watchman. He was here
to protect you at night, not to harm you in any way. If
a fire had broken out, he would have given the alarm in
order that your lives might have been saved. He guarded
you while you slept, that no harm of any kind might come
to you.
"The school does not keep you here because it wants
to restrain you, but because you have been adjudged in-
corrigible by a court of law, and the school, instead of
punishing you, is giving you a chance to learn to be good
and useful men. You need more than anything else, just
now, the friendly aid you are receiving here from these
good Brothers. I am sure you did not know what you
were, doing when you harmed your own protector."
By this time not a trace of the bravado which the boys
had formerly shown remained. They were weeping and
thoroughly penitent. The colloquy continued along these
lines :
The Cardinal — Brother Paul, I think these boys are
sorry for what they have done and will never do it again.
I will undertake to say that they will be good boys in
future. Will you let them off from punishment for me*?
Brother Paul (overwhelmed) — Yes, your Eminence.
The Cardinal — I am very glad of that. And now.
Brother Paul, as the boys of the school have all been
through a strain, caused by the trouble that is now hap-
pily over, will you give them a holiday*?
Brother Paul — I will, your Eminence.
In addition to the holiday, the Cardinal directed that
the boys be regaled with ice cream at his expense. Need-
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 973
less to say, no charges of cruelty developed out of the
escape at that school. Both of the boys became useful
and respected men.
Gibbons paid occasional visits to the Juvenile Court
of Baltimore and sat with the judge on the bench. In the
case of a particularly good judge who was deeply inter-
ested in children and was both merciful and helpful to
them, he urged the Governor of Maryland to reappoint
him, and this was done.
Some parents, knowing his interest in boys, called upon
him to solicit his direct help so that the publicity of court
action in committing their children to institutions might
be avoided. In cases where it seemed proper to do so, he
was always disposed to give them cards or notes to re-
formatories, which were sufficient to obtain entrance for
the boys and proper oversight of them.
At the Christmas season of 1912, he was the Santa
Claus for one hundred children at St. Mary's Asylum,
Baltimore, presenting to each of them a toy and a box of
candy and fruit. The children there were only a little
advanced beyond infancy, but they were old enough to
give a simple entertainment under the direction of the
Sisters in charge, and the Cardinal watched it through-
out, seeming to take delight in it. When the Sisters an-
nounced that he was "to be the Santa Claus," he went
upon a stage which had been erected and his face beamed
as he made a happy address, adapted to childish minds,
expressing his satisfaction with the excellent care which
the little ones were receiving.
A man once called upon Gibbons accompanied by
some children who wished to present to him specimens
974 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of their handiwork, in which they took especial satisfac-
tion. It pleased them to think that they could give these
things, simple as they were, to the Cardinal. The man
who was with them made a short speech of presentation
in which, from the best motives, he spoke disparagingly
of the value of the gifts, but urged the Cardinal to re-
ceive them because they had been made by little folk who
loved him.
Apparently the children had not realized before that
the gifts which they brought had no especial value, and
the sudden revelation of this to them from the words
of the speaker almost brought tears to their eyes. Gib-
bons' quick observation took in this. When the address
of presentation had been concluded he picked up the
gifts one by one, examined them with an appearance of
admiration and exclaimed over and over:
"Aren't they wonderful I"
Every trace of weeping faded from the faces of the
children, and their delight knew no bounds when he
made a graceful speech of thanks to them.
After Gibbons attended the funeral of Bishop Van de
Vyver, of Richmond, there was time for him to take a
walk. He decided to visit the institution of the Little
Sisters of the Poor in that city, in which he was inter-
ested, but he did not know the way there. Meeting a
boy near the church, he asked to be directed. The lad
accompanied him to the institution, and they had a cor-
dial chat as they threaded their way through the streets,
the lad thus receiving a share of attention with which men
prominent in any station of life would have been honored.
Gibbons was always glad to hear the confessions of
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 975
children. The daughter of a Baltimore banker brought
her little daughter, seven years old, to the archiepiscopal
residence on one occasion for her first confession. One of
the priests attempted to receive the confession, but the
child was tirnid and agitated and could not be induced to
go through with it. At that stage the Cardinal appeared
and inquired what was the matter. Learning the situa-
tion, he spoke kindly to the child, soothed her com-
pletely, and heard the confession himself.
When the Convent of the Oblate Sisters of Providence
in Baltimore was much damaged by a fire ^ from which
160 negro children who were in their care were rescued,
Gibbons hastened to the scene and consoled both the Sis-
ters and their little charges. Going from one nun to an-
other, he spoke words of encouragement, and promised
to help in obtaining funds for the rebuilding. The
children had seen the Cardinal on several occasions and
they crowded around him, receiving expressions of his
sympathy and his joy at the fact that all had escaped
in safety. His presence restored calmness and courage
to them.
A husband and wife, the latter carrying a baby, ap-
plied at his residence one afternoon for the privilege of
making confession to a priest. The usher at the door
informed them that the priests were resting, but that one
of them would be downstairs in a short time. The hus-
band persisted, saying that he lived in the suburbs of
Baltimore, must return home before it grew late and
could not delay. The usher went to the private apart-
ments in the house to learn if the services of any of the
* 1912.
976 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
priests could be obtained. He soon returned saying that
the Cardinal had volunteered and would hear the con-
fessions. This plunged the couple in a panic.
"I will not go to the Cardinal," said the husband.
"Neither will I," said the wife; "why did you get
him?"
"The priests are all resting, and he offered to come
down," answered the usher.
Before the couple could withdraw, the Cardinal ap-
peared. They were so overcome that their embarrass-
ment was painful. The Cardinal simply bowed his head
and neither by word nor act added ta the confusion of
the penitents. At first they forgot what to say, but at
length contrived to make their confessions and left. Be-
fore departing, the wife said to one who was near-by:
"I am so glad that I went for confession to the Car-
dinal. It is a great honor, and he was so kind and gentle ;
besides, I feel so comforted after the instruction and
advice he gave me. He made me see so clearly, and is
one of the best confessors I ever met. I just thought that
I could not go to him, but now I would not take anything
for the recollection of this day."
Gibbons was always pained when in the course of his
many journeyings he found persons who were embar-
rassed— and they were by no means few — by awe of him
on account of his office. A story was told of one of his
episcopal trips, in the course of which he took breakfast
at the home of one of the principal residents, who may
be called Mr. Jones. Neither the host nor the hostess
appeared at the table, and when he inquired where they
were the butler reluctantly replied that they were too
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 977
diffident to eat in the presence of the Cardinal. The
eminent guest sent his companion, who may be desig-
nated as Mr. Brown, to make inquiries.
"What," exclaimed the host, "take breakfast with the
Cardinal ■? No, sir! I wouldn't know what to do nor
what to say. I couldn't eat a mouthful. I wouldn't
know whether I was standing on my head or my heels.
No, sir!"
The host was told that the Cardinal was one of the
gentlest and most unassuming of men; that he had been
complimenting the cooking, and that it was rude to refuse
to eat with him. The only answer was, "No, sir!"
"You don't mind me," said Mr. Brown; "why would
you be embarrassed by the Cardinal?"
"Well, Mr. Brown," he replied, "you're only an edi-
tor, and I'm used to editors ; but there's only one Cardinal
in this country, and I wouldn't know how to act in his
company. No, sir!"
"Well, perhaps Mrs. Jones might like to "
"No, sir, Mrs. Jones wouldn't. She's just as upset as
I am."
"What shall I tell his Eminence?"
"Make my excuses; tell him I feel honored at having
him as my guest ; beg him to make himself at home, and
thank him for inviting me to sit at the table with him;
but tell him I couldn't do it. No, sir!"
When Mr. Brown related what had happened, the
Cardinal was distressed at his host's unnecessary agita-
tion, but made the best of the situation.
After breakfast, a church was dedicated, and the Car-
dinal held an informal reception. The local pastor took
978 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
him back to dinner at Mr. Jones'. The meal was on the
table, smoking hot, but neither host nor hostess appeared.
After the butler had served dinner, Mr. Brown re-
membered that the Cardinal was in the habit of taking
a nap at that time of day, and went to hunt Mr. Jones.
The host was found marching up and down on the far
side of the garden. Mr. Brown thanked him for a very
good dirmer, and then said :
"Mr. Jones, the Cardinal would like to take a nap."
"Oh! I have no bed good enough for a Cardinal, Mr.
Brown."
"The bed I occupied last night would do tip-top."
"Would it, Mr. Brown ^ Well, how shall we get him
up there*?"
"You go up with him and show him the way."
"Me*? No, sir I I wouldn't do that."
"Well, go and see if the bed has been made up; then
come down and tell me, and I'll show him the way."
"Oh! yes, I'll do that gladly, Mr. Brown."
The host ascended to the bedroom and came down to
report that the room was in perfect order. Then he darted
out the back door and into the garden again, as if an ogre
were after him.
The Cardinal had his nap; as he left the house in the
afternoon, there was no one to bid him good-by, the whole
family being still in hiding.
One of the many persons who wrote long communica-
tions to the Cardinal concerning more or less abnormal
ideas about religion was a woman in the West. At first
he paid some attention to her communications, but as
they increased in number and length, he discarded them.
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 979
throwing them into his waste basket as soon as he opened
the envelopes and recognized the handwriting. One day
a Sister who assisted in household duties at the archiepis-
copal residence said to him:
"Your Eminence, you tore up one hundred dollars this
morning."
Gibbons, greatly surprised, learned that the diligent
Sister had found the remains of a torn one hundred dol-
lar bill in the waste basket, accompanying the fragments
of the latest letter received from the western woman. It
appeared that the woman, hoping to attract notice to her
communications on the part of the Cardinal, had adopted
the expedient of sending him that amount to be used in
good works. One of his friends used to jest with him
on this subject occasionally, saying:
"Your Eminence, have you torn up any hundred dol-
lar bills this morning'?"
The Rev. Dr. H. Allen Tupper, formerly a Baptist
minister in Baltimore, was greatly impressed one day by
seeing the Cardinal pause on the street to speak to a
ragged and dirty negro boy. The Cardinal put his hand
on the boy's head, smiled, bestowed a few kindly words,
and gave him a blessing. "What a picture for an artist I"
Dr. Tupper commented in relating the story.
Another negro boy, who worked for a time at Gibbons'
residence, was a brother of twins. In his exultation he
used to tell stories of these twins to the Cardinal, who
was always willing to listen to them. When the Car-
dinal would see the boy in the morning he would ask:
"How are the twins coming along *?"
Later one of the twins died, and the brother was grief-
980 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
stricken. The same day while returning in a motor car
from a church celebration in Baltimore, wearing his robes,
the Cardinal directed that the vehicle be driven to the
home of the mother of the twins, in an alley, for the
purpose of offering her, as he said, "a few consoling
words." His presence in such a locality naturally caused
a commotion, and a crowd rushed to the little house when
the Cardinal went inside and expressed his deep sympathy
for the negro family in his inimitable way.
One of the rare instances in which Gibbons adminis-
tered stern reproofs was when a priest in the archiepisco-
pal household presented to him a certain letter for signa-
ture. He declined to sign it, saying that little or no judg-
ment was displayed in asking him to do so. A short time
later Gibbons went to the door of the priest's study,
opened it and said : "Father, I wish to apologize for hav-
ing spoken to you so sharply this morning."
While he was visiting in New Orleans, a young mar-
ried woman obtained her father's permission to give a
dinner at the latter's home in his honor, and invited a
number of distinguished guests, including Archbishop
Janssens, several clergymen and a number of persons
socially prominent in the city. Gibbons accepted. When
he arrived he found that the dinner table was decorated
to an unusual degree with flowers. One of the impor-
tant guests said to the hostess: "Take away the flowers;
I cannot see the people for them."
She was much embarrassed at the lack of appreciation
of her effort to beautify the table, but began to remove
the flowers when Gibbons, observing her distress, greatly
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 981
lessened it by saying to her with one of his beaming
smiles :
"Madam, the light of your countenance is sufficient
for us."
At a dinner in Washington at which a number of
United States senators were present, Senator Bayard,
afterward Secretary of State, deplored in a conversation
with Gibbons that the public addresses of legislators were
delivered under restrictions that were often severe. He
said:
"Ministers of religion like yourself have a great ad-
vantage over us. You can talk as long as you please, you
can say what you please, you can upbraid if you please,
and you are heard with silent respect without fear of
contradiction, while we are liable to be interrupted by
frequent rejoinders and interpellations."
The Cardinal playfully replied: "We have a clear
field because we are always expected to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Another story told of him is that he once summoned
to his residence a man who held a high position in public
life in Baltimore to say that one of his friends, a man of
education, refinement and character, was in need of a
position. The official promptly responded : "Your Emi-
nence, send your friend to me, and I will have a position
ready for him." To his surprise, he found that the Car-
dinal's friend was a retired Protestant minister.
When Gibbons preached at the Baltimore Cathedral,
he almost always asked the choir to sing "Lead, Kindly
Light." This was his favorite hymn. It expressed at
once the philosophy of his life and the unfailing hope
982 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
which sustained him. When he preached, the leader of
the choir was always alert to receive the Cardinal's sig-
nal to give the beautiful words and music of Cardinal
Newman's consoling verses.
CHAPTER LIV
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS
In considering the elements of greatness which Car-
dinal Gibbons possessed — and all of those who knew
him with sufficient intimacy to judge attributed to him
at least some of those elements — we are confronted at the
outset by the fact that many persons found him by no
means easy to understand. His nature seemed to be too
wide and deep for comprehension at one glance, or indeed
at many glances. This was all the more evident because
he habitually concealed his strongest traits until there
was the necessity to use them.
To those behind the scenes, as it were, it was apparent
that one of his chief concerns, amounting to a clearly
marked personal characteristic, was to avoid the appear-
ance of overshadowing others. He wished no one, even
the humblest, to be constrained or embarrassed in his
presence and to a degree truly extraordinary was "all
things to all men." Those of the largest mold who came
in close contact with him — Popes, Presidents, statesmen,
men of great affairs generally — rated him highest, while
a child with whom he might romp would be disposed to
say that he was only an excellent playmate. It is sig-
nificant that among those who cherished the highest ad-
miration for him and reposed the greatest confidence in
983
984 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
his powers were Leo XIII, Manning, Rampolla, Cleve-
land and Roosevelt.
In estimating the elements of greatness which he pos-
sessed we may divide the aspects in which he presented
himself to his contemporaries into the classifications of
character, general achievement, churchmanship, states-
manship, authorship, intellect and personality. Light
upon these points in detail will afford some perspective
for a general and composite opinion.
Americans have shown a marked preference for con-
sidering the possession of high and strong character as
the first essential of true greatness. Their history as a
nation affords ample evidence of a certain difference of
viewpoint in this respect from Europeans. Their favor-
ites, obviously, are Washington and Lincoln. In dwell-
ing upon the merits of these men the sublimity of their
characters is usually emphasized above all other consid-
erations. The benignity, steadfastness, unselfish patri-
otism and fortitude of Washington are held up as an
example to every pupil in the schools. Lincoln's bound-
less pity, his "malice toward none and charity for all,"
the self-effacing modesty which caused him to dwell
upon his humble origin when he had risen to heights of
greatness in the world's eyes, and his patient endurance
of adversity overshadow in the public mind the execu-
tive gifts which he displayed during four of the most try-
ing years of war which man ever faced. Looking back
to the beginning of the national history of America, the
first men whom the people considered great — Washing-
ton, Franklin, Jefferson and Hamilton — were distin-
guished preeminently by traits of character.
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 985
Gibbons, though he often heard others call him great,
never showed any wish to be so considered. Had he done
so, undoubtedly he would have made it plain that he
preferred to be deemed great in character and that he
esteemed lightly, or not at all, a verdict of greatness in
any other respect.
The aspect of his character which was most evident
to every observer was simplicity. That simplicity was
profound, all pervading. He never lost it in his greatest
moments or those which were most commonplace. His
thoughts moved along easy and direct channels. No
intricate and tortuous bed obstructed their limpid
stream. His mind reduced everything — acts, motives,
projects of great potency to humanity no less than the
primary problems of his office as a priest — to their ele-
ments. He was almost childlike — indeed, was childlike
at many times and regarding many things. If it were left
to the judgment of those who were closest to him when
he was in his prime to say whether or not his simplicity
amounted to sublimity, their answer would be an almost
unanimous affirmative.
A strongly defined trait which blended with his sim-
plicity was his unselfishness. For himself he sought
nothing of reward, even in honor and fame, of which at
times, indeed, he appeared to possess too much for his
liking. He rigidly excluded from his personal horizon
all thoughts of ease or luxury, and devoted himself with
single-minded purpose to labors in behalf of others, whose
fruits would be seen in others.
So great was his simplicity of life that even the per-
quisites which other Cardinals customarily possess and
986 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
which are considered essential to the dignity of their
office he discarded to the utmost extent possible. He
would not keep a private livery in the days of the horse
and carriage. Although extremely fond later of the mo-
tor car, principally because of his lifelong habit of being
in the open air as much as possible, he would neither
buy one nor consent to accept one as a present, although
almost innumerable offers of that kind were pressed upon
him. All his personal habits were frugal. The materials
of his clothing were of the plainest sort and not infre-
quently showed signs of long wear, although he pos-
sessed a considerable zest for neatness of appearance and
surroundings. All that was given to him and all that
he earned by his own labors as an author he bestowed in
works of benevolence upon others.
He was forgiving, as few men are, even to the extent
of making enemies, or at least of raising up critics by his
habitual attitude of forbearance to others. It seemed
that he was incapable of retaining uncharitable thoughts
or of remembering injury or antagonism. His clerical
critics were few but usually rather vigorous in their
expressions. Some of them were associated with him in
his household at various times, and it was noticeable that
a considerable proportion of their complaints arose from
the fact that he exercised tolerance and charity which
went beyond what they considered to be the requirements
of strict justice.
There were several instances of priests in his dioceses
who erred through mere weaknesses or mistakes of judg-
ment which harmed only themselves. These men he
would never punish severely, although he removed them
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 987
from positions where their acts might affect others. Like
his Divine Master, he would forgive them not only seven
times, but seventy times seven.
He could not be moved to sustained anger, although
at times when an attempt was made to frustrate some of
his purposes he showed temporary petulance. This soon
passed like a thunder shower, and he indicated no remem-
brance of it afterward in his conversation or dealing with
the individual who had provoked him.
He possessed a sense of justice and fairness which
seemed to be sufficient to penetrate the thickest clouds.
Many a man, priest or layman, found reliance in this
when others were ready to condemn.
He did not care whether or not his judgments were
approved by others as individuals or in the mass. Once
he formed a definite conception of the right, he was as
immovable as a rock.
In fact, his steadfastness was the one overwhelming
trait which enabled him to accomplish the labors to
which he devoted his life. A man of less persistence in
the face of misunderstandings and other obstacles could
never have succeeded in inducing the Congregation of the
Holy Office to reverse its condemnation of the Knights
of Labor, and could never have stemmed the tide of
Cahenslyism, with its threat of forcing upon the Catholic
Church in America assent to the permanency of large
compact units of European nationalism transferred to
these shores by immigration. A man who relied only
upon faith in his own ideas could never have endured
with the fortitude which Gibbons showed in some of his
greater struggles. The one thing which sustained him
988 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
when all others failed was his simple and unshakable
belief in the direct guidance of the affairs of men by
Divine Providence.
Of the honor of the Church Gibbons was as jealous as
Chevalier Bayard was of personal honor. The only two
occasions in his long life when he seemed to be dismayed
were when the Catholic University lost temporarily
$850,000 of its investments through the failure in busi-
ness in 1904 of Thomas E. Waggaman, its treasurer, and
when a priest in Baltimore in an ill-considered effort to
raise money for a new church became overwhelmed by
debts through speculation. Neither of these deplorable
incidents, of course, could affect the Catholic Church in
general in any adverse way, as they were merely isolated
conditions; nevertheless in his extreme solicitude for the
Church, Gibbons regarded them as almost blighting per-
sonal misfortunes. His self-control and optimism wav-
ered momentarily; but when the loss was repaired, chiefly
through his own efforts, his serenity returned.
Few men were as nearly devoid of vanity as he. As all
men could not understand him, he appreciated under-
standing when he found it, but this feeling seemed to be
entirely dissociated from vanity. Even in his youth, as
has been seen, he did not try to advance himself in the
Church; he even resisted advancement when it was
forced upon him by others. Never was he known to ex-
press any estimate of his own powers except by way of
deprecation. In The Ambassador of Christ he wrote this
remarkable sentence : "I have never spent a considerable
time in the company of priest or layman without form-
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 989
ing comparisons to his advantage and to my own dis-
paragement." ^
His humility was not of the kind which expresses itself
in a long face and a general aspect of gloom. He was
cheerfulness itself in his habitual moods and seemed never
so happy as when performing a simple service in a hum-
ble capacity. He would visit the sick or relieve an un-
fortunate person's want with far more alacrity than he
would show in appearing in a role of honor at the Vatican
or the White House.
Overshadowing all his personal conduct was his gen-
tleness. Although it was evident that he radiated force
of character from his person, it was not a destructive
force. It was remarked of him that in all relations of
life he seemed the true gentleman. He spoke commonly
in moderately low and pleasing tones, and his movements
were never jerky or demonstrative.
In the acts of piety which belong to the priesthood, the
celebration of Masses, prayer and Scriptural readings
and exercises, it is doubtful if any clergyman in America
showed more fervor or used more of each day in per-
sonal devotions than Gibbons. This was to him the
foundation of everything that he did, and he never neg-
lected it or even modified it under the pressure of any
public duty, no matter how exacting.
If character is the cornerstone of greatness, accomplish-
ment is obviously one of its main pillars. Gibbons' life
having been devoted chiefly to bringing about a compara-
tively few great and general results, we may consider in
* The Ambassador of Christ, p. i6o.
990 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
detail how far he succeeded in his aims and the range of
their usefulness and importance to humanity. First of
all, it may be said that he shared with Leo XIII and
Manning the dominant leadership in thought and action
in the Catholic Church throughout the world in one of
her most fruitful periods in modern times. Manning died
in 189,2. For eleven years after that Leo and Gibbons
were the giants of the Church; then in 19.03 Leo passed,
and Gibbons stood alone for nearly a score of years, the
foremost personality, under the Popes, of her Hierarchy
in the world.
Those three men, more than all others, guided the
Church's external policies in the direction of liberalism
in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, and Leo
and Gibbons continued t'hat guidance in the opening of
the twentieth. Gibbons and Manning, being removed
from Rome, had no prestige as heads of powerful sub-
ordinate organizations in the Curia, but were happily
able to exercise their influence in the two countries which
were most largely expressive of the development of those
liberal ideas that both of them foresaw as impending for
the world at large. Their unified thought — for they
agreed as to all the general lines of the Church's opportu-
nity to reach deeper into the hearts of men — swayed
others by their own force in addition to the force of
Catholic authority exerted from Leo as the fountain head.
In the battle of ideas the views of these three prevailed
and the steady, even remarkable advancement of the
Church in a time of shifting conditions and general stress
was accomplished by following their leadership.
Gibbons in the United States, or Manning in England,
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 991
could have sought contentment in performing the duties
of capable administrators and setting an example of the
episcopal virtues to their flocks, but there was in them
something that ranged far beyond this. Their minds
reached out to the largest opportunities which confronted
the Church in her worldwide mission and, under the mas-
terly leadership of Leo, they controlled her decisions upon
critical questions which involved the characteristic
changes of the world in their time. Their appeal to peo-
ples rather than governments, which was the main foun-
dation of all that they did, was vindicated in its results
by the rise of popular rule, the wreck of dynasties and
the advance of religion, shining with an unfading light
amid the ruins of material systems around it.
In America the accomplishment of Gibbons in allay-
ing the bitter intolerance concerning religion which pre-
vailed in the early days of his priesthood was a giant's
task. That he was the greatest single force in bringing
about this transformation can scarcely be doubted. He
labored from youth onward to attain it, laying the foun-
dations in his work in North Carolina and Virginia, and
by his book The Faith of Our Fathers^ whose wide char-
ity of view influenced tens of thousands who could be
swayed directly by the voice of no priest or preacher.
After his elevation to the archiepiscopal seat in Balti-
more, he rose almost at a bound before his fellow coun-
trymen as the national pattern and exemplar of religious
tolerance, and he strove for it unceasingly by word and
deed until the end of his labors.
Indeed, it was far more by example than by precept
that he exhibited to his fellow-countrymen the sanity of
992 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tolerance. He seldom spoke directly of the sub-
ject in sermons or public addresses, but by illus-
trating tolerance in himself in a unique way when he
had attained a high position and held it for a long term
of years, he changed the channels in which men's
thoughts flowed.
Not only did he cause Protestants to be more tolerant
of Catholics, and vice versa, but he actually made Prot-
estant denominations more tolerant of each other. In a
multiplicity of utterances he spoke no word of reproof
against any Christian man or any Christian faith. How
was it possible for malignant critics of the Church to
repeat their formulas with even a semblance of belief in
them when the foremost Catholic prelate in America, a
man constantly before the eyes of the people, was the
negation of all that they asserted? If one were moved
to declare that the Catholic Church aimed at the political
domination of America, it was only necessary to point to
Gibbons in order to confound that dictum utterly. If
one asserted that the Church sought to proscribe all other
forms of religion in this country, it was only necessary to
point to Gibbons as a consistent and powerful upholder
of the principle of equal rights guaranteed fundamen-
tally in the Constitution. How could men be persuaded
that she taught gross errors and superstitious practises,
when the life and personality of Gibbons gave direct
evidence to the contrary?
Gibbons accomplished all this without the least modi-
fication in the orthodoxy of his belief. He merely proved
that being a devoted Catholic was entirely compatible
with thorough Americanism and with the friendliest at-
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 993
titude toward adherents of other faiths. For his Church
and for himself, he claimed only such privileges as he
freely conceded to others under the Constitution and
laws. His forum was public opinion. He entered it
boldly and pleaded his case.
Now and then, in the heat of the "A. P. A." agitation,
some one was heard to say that the Cardinal declared
his admiration for his country in order to bring about a
false sense of security and to make the way easier for a
contemplated inroad. This reasoning failed to take into
account that he reprehended defects in American
political and social institutions as often as he bestowed
praise. He was like a sentinel on the tower, always cry-
ing the alarm at the approach of danger. Of all Ameri-
cans, he was perhaps the most outspoken in denouncing
national faults, and he was not infrequently the first one
of prominence to expose them. Throughout his career,
however, he expressed unfailing faith in the future and
in the capacity of the people to right their own wrongs
by orderly means. He held up an ideal and tried to guide
the footsteps of the people toward it.
Undoubtedly much of his success in routing religious
intolerance in America and thereby opening a way for the
Catholic Church which resulted in an immense accession
to her numbers was due to his settling in definite form, at
the outset of his career as Cardinal, the question of the
Catholic stand in regard to the separation of Church and
State in the United States. There had been no real
cause for doubt as to this stand before, but Gibbons
understood thoroughly that the doubt existed, baseless
or not, in America, and that it was one of his main stum-
994. LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
bling blocks in the program of Catholic advance which
he planned.
The able leaders of the Church in Rcnne would have
considered it madness to attempt an encroachment upon
the equal toleration of all sects and the favoritism of
none which are engrafted in the Constitution. There
was, of course, the historical Catholic background that in
the days when all Christians throughout the world ac-
knowledged but one faith and one spiritual shepherd on
earth, the relations between Church and State bore a
character and intimacy which reflected those conditions.
No Pope and no Bishop could so far depart from Catholic
teaching as to assert that the Church would not accom-
plish a greater spiritual benefit to man if she enjoyed the
favor of the laws and the protection of the public author-
ities. The assertion of this general principle, however,
had never possessed in practise any direct bearing upon
America, where an overwhelming majority of the pop-
ulation has always been Protestant. John Carroll, the
first American Archbishop, coincided to the fullest extent
with the American system when it was set up, and the
prelates who have come after him have never proposed
to change it. The Church has repeatedly declared
through the Popes that she adapts herself to all forms of
civil government, and is unwilling to have her mission
thwarted by conflict with the civil authorities any-
where.
How did Gibbons interpret this matter in his own
mind? His writings and public speeches have left no
shadow of doubt on that point. He believed that the
Catholic Church under the conditions that prevailed in
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 995
his time and would probably continue to prevail would
thrive better if entirely divorced from civil institutions,
but fully protected in her spiritual mission. He did not
wish to force his own views upon European countries,
regarding it as proper that each nationality should settle
the question in its own way, provided that the solution
were not inconsistent with the full and free advance of
the Catholic faith. As to America, he was convinced that
complete acquiescence by word and deed at all times in
the system which prevailed here was best from every
point of view.
Confronted by this situation and by the misunderstand-
ing of it on the part of great numbers of his fellow-coun-
trymen, he decided to deliver at a most timely moment,
his installation as Cardinal in his titular Church in Rome,
a declaration which would give the incredulous no more
room for doubt. Basing his stand upon the encyclical of
Leo XIII, the reigning Pope, concerning "The Constitu-
tion of Christian States," he declared that the Church
"in the genial atmosphere of liberty blossoms like a rose,"
and that in the United States "the civil government holds
over us the £egis of its protection without interfering with
us in the legitimate exercise of our sublime mission as
ministers of the gospel of Christ." His speech was a
carefully planned exposition of the true meaning of the
American system as to the relations of Church and State,
and no one since that time has been able to obtain any
important degree of popular assent to the view that the
Church proposes an assault upon the institutions of the
country.
When the Cardinal uttered this declaration, the rela-
996 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
tions between Church and State in not a few countries in
Europe were far different from what he lived to see them
become. A shadow of the old conditions still overhung
some of the other Cardinals in their thoughts upon the
subject, and they were naturally startled at the boldness
of Gibbons. They reflected viewpoints with which they
had always been associated in their own countries. His
declaration was never questioned by Leo or any succeed-
ing Pope, or any other authority in the Church. It and
its results stand to this day as a complete refutation of
the most potent argument which was used to cripple the
Catholic Church in the aggressive spiritual mission to the
American people which has been her aim from the be-
ginnings of the country.
By his victory for Americanism in the struggle against
the splitting up of the Church in this country into groups
based upon former European nationalism, he served both
Church and country to a degree whose full significance
it was only possible to realize in the light of the World
War. The power and resourcefulness which he showed
in that struggle probably marked his maximum.
Upon this question he seemed to see into the future
with singular clearness. The great onset of immigration
into the United States from Europe in the last two dec-
ades of the nineteenth century had excited on the part
of other leaders of American thought occasional appre-
hension and nothing more. Now and then some one in
authority was heard to say that the strain upon the as-
similative power of the American people was great, but
no one proposed an acceptable remedy. There was ap-
parently general reliance upon the continued working of
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 997
that assimilative power to a degree sufficient to overcome
the threatened danger.
Gibbons was not content to warn or merely to trust
in the future without taking action to anticipate it.
He, too, felt that American assimilation would do the
work, but his conviction was equally firm that the proc-
ess must be assisted by those who were able to exercise
influence in strengthening and sustaining it.
The main basis of Cahenslyism — the formidable move-
ment for the appointment of Bishops in the Catholic
Church in America on the basis of the numbers comprising
foreign groups in the Church here — was merely the ex-
pression of natural forces that were set in motion by the
unprecedented tide of humanity that poured in this direc-
tion from Europe. When the immigration reached its
greatest height, the largest proportion of the newcomers
were from countries in which the Catholic faith predom-
inated, and the Church was the only agency with a suf-
ficiently wide and powerful reach to exercise a definite
influence upon them in their daily lives.
Cahenslyism would have preserved, even jealously
guarded, their former nationalities in the new country to
which they came. Its effect, had it not been stifled before
it had any important effect, would have been to impair
and even to destroy in some parts of the country the
validity of the bond of the English language as an over-
shadowing force in American national unity. The im-
migrants would have been secluded, as it were, from the
mass of the people previously here, so that opportunities
would have been lacking for them to understand the prin-
ciples of the government under which the)^ had come to
998 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
live, and a dense cloud of misunderstanding between
them and the remainder of the population would have
become permanent. No one foresaw as fully as Gib-
bons the possible consequences of this policy if the United
States should become engaged in war with a nation from
which a large proportion of these immigrants had sprung.
Some speeches, indeed, were made and some admirable
work was attempted by a comparatively small number
of organizations of Americans to assist in the assimila-
tion of the foreigners. The public school authorities in
some of the States attempted to aid in their assimilation,
but in other States school boards preserved diverse na-
tionality by the establishment of separate language
schools. The children of Catholic immigrants, however,
did not for the most part attend the public schools. Their
education was received in the parochial schools, and it
was there that the influence of Gibbons reached them.
Statesman that he was, he did not wish to attempt to
sever them from their former ties by a violent wrench.
He knew that this would be ineffective, and, indeed, that
it might impair a just solution in no small degree, but he
believed in providing an orderly process, which would be
sufficiently rapid, by which the immigrants and their
children would be led gradually to mingle on terms of
equality with the rest of the people of America, and, at
the earliest practicable time, would consider their new life
as fact and their former life as memory. From the time
when he obtained the decision of Rome in his favor on
this point the Catholic Church became, and has since con-
tinued to be, an active agent for the gradual, orderly and
effective Americanization of immigrants who arrive in
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 999
America. Forces that might have produced disunion in
the World War were so weakened that they did not seri-
ously arrest the participation of the country in that con-
flict according to its own national ideals.
But this was only a part of the service which Gibbons
performed. Had the custom of electing nationalist
Bishops in America been sanctioned by Papal authority,
the unity of the Catholic Church in this country would
have been wofully impaired. It would have been com-
posed then, as Gibbons plainly foresaw and plainly said,
of discordant groups striving from the active force of
nationalist rivalries and impairing what in his sermon at
the conferring of the pallium upon Archbishop Katzer he
called "this blessed harmony that reigns among us."
Furthermore, what would the critics of the Catholic
Church have said when the World War burst? With
what vehemence might they have denounced the Church
for preserving the nationality of foreigners after their
arrival and lending the power of her organization to
arrest assimilation"? The storm of criticism might even
have broken before the war. The enemies of the Church
were lying in wait to find some means of assailing her
as un-American, and in the working out of the system
proposed by the Cahenslyites, what a leverage they might
have attained I When the war came, some irresponsible
Catholic belonging to one of the foreign groups might
have made an immature remark in which he might have
claimed the protection of the Church for an anti-Ameri-
can policy, and such a remark, if misconstrued, might
have led to the gravest consequences.
Gibbons wished to keep the record clear. He felt that
1000 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the Catholic Church from the dawn of the Republic had
done nothing hostile to American nationality and insti-
tutions, but, on the other hand, had been a staunch and
consistent upholder of them. If she were to mar this
record through yielding to persistent demands which pro-
ceeded in great part from Europe, and whose background
lay, to a certain degree, in mysterious forces identified
with nationalist aggression there, a new wave of intol-
erance, like that of "Know Nothing" times, might have
swept over the country.
The supposed danger which excited the violent appre-
hensions of the "Know Nothings" and led to their bloody
and cruel proscriptions was the mere presence of the for-
eigners ; if added to their presence there had been a policy
deliberately followed by the Catholic Church of keeping
them separate from the main body of citizens, and pre-
venting their absorption by natural means, the storm of
intolerance might have been angrier than it had ever
been.
Gibbons was not satisfied to know that the Church was
doing nothing whatever that might be properly consid-
ered to stamp her as a foreign influence. He wished all
his fellow-citizens to know this also, and he could not be
content if there was any misunderstanding on their part,
no matter what the cause. His stand against Cahensly-
ism not only made American unity possible in the World
War, but probably warded off another period of bitter
feeling against the Church which would have stayed her
progress when she was growing faster than she had ever
grown.
Light upon Gibbons' character is thrown by the fact
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 1001
that in this struggle, as in others in which he engaged,
he possessed the singular faculty of retaining the esteem
of those against whom he contended. Not once in the
long process of strife did he utter a word of reproach
against any particular foreign nationality or the mass of
its people in this country, or any of its spokesmen in the
Church in America, Archbishop Ireland, who ably as-
sisted him throughout the conflict, pursued methods
which drew the intense fire of the opposition, little as
he heeded it; but during the period while it lasted the
Cahenslyites never spoke of Gibbons with disrespect,
although they strove to the utmost limit of their power
to circumvent his purposes.
Years after the fight was over and the victory won,
Cahensly, whose name the movement had retained when
it had swept far beyond its original proportions, visited
the Cardinal at the archiepiscopal residence in Baltimore
in the course of a trip to America, and rendered personal
homage to the man who had done so much to overthrow
the cause for which he had stood. Gibbons, always
free from bitterness, received him with kindness and
spoke afterward of the "pleasant" conversation which
they had had; but as long as life remained in him he
did not cease to be glad that he had met with firmness
the danger of foreign nationalism in America when it
had presented itself in its most threatening aspect.
Another accomplishment of Gibbons which stamped
him as a leader of men was the marked influence which
he exerted in causing America to be better understood
abroad. He was the first of his fellow-countrymen to
make an important inroad upon the misconception of
1002 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the United States, its institutions and its people which
prevailed for so long and to such a great extent among
the principal nations of Europe. There had been a belief
that America was an experiment, poorly conceived, a
temporary factor in the world which contained within
itself elements of dissolution. There were exaggerated
views of its people and its public men. While all Euro-
peans did not share in this misunderstanding, it prevailed
among many millions and was an obstacle to solidly based
international accord.
European churchmen, both Catholics and Protestants
— not because they were churchmen, but because they
were Europeans — had once regarded as radical and even
revolutionary the separation of Church and State as es-
tablished by the Constitution of 1787. In their eyes it
seemed to divorce religion from the body politic and
therefore to impair the State as an uplifting force among
the people. In countries where various Protestant
churches were established and supported in part by the
State the same feeling prevailed as in Catholic countries.
The main thought was that the American system meant
irreligion, while the European system meant the foster-
ing of religious influence by the State in behalf of the
people."
By his speech in Rome in 1887, just a century after
the framing of the Constitution, on the relations of
Church and State in America, and by numerous subse-
quent declarations and acts abroad. Gibbons brought
home to the thinking portion of the European peoples a
comprehension of the working in practise of the Ameri-
*Bryce, The American Commonivealth, Vol. II, p. 767.
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 1003
can system, as distinguished from the working in prac-
tise of the European system, and as separated from the
theoretical aspects of either. He showed that in America
the Church was perhaps more secure in her rights than
anywhere else in the world, and that the protection which
had been given to her in her spiritual mission had resulted
in accessions such as she had gained in no European coun-
try. He showed that the leaders of America, from Wash-
ington down, had been for the most part men of deep
religious feeling, and that this influence had been woven
in the thread of the nation's life.
He also brought home to Europe a comprehension that
America had not only a free but a strong government,
long before that lesson was learned from example in the
World War. The institutions of the United States, he
pointed out, while having an appearance of laxity, really
contained within themselves stronger elements of perma-
nency than were to be found in the institutions of some
of the other great powers, because they possessed by vir-
tue of their elasticity the capacity to withstand a sudden
shock. Leaders of European thought first learned from
Gibbons to believe that America was a fixed and per-
manent factor as a power of the first rank and that its
institutions, so far from being unworthy to be compared
with those of Europe, were worthy of imitation
throughout the world in some respects. He lived to see
a tremendous strengthening of the democratic ideal
abroad, in conformity with what he had so long pre-
dicted to incredulous observers on the other side of the
Atlantic.
In this connection it is well to consider that his influ-
1004 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
ence, far more than that of any other churchman whom
America has produced, extended outside his own country.
His victory in the struggle for the right of labor to or-
ganize affected more Europeans in the aggregate than
Americans, for, as the principle was soon sanctioned by
Leo and proclaimed in one of that Pope's encyclicals, it
was a charter for Catholic workmen throughout the
world. European labor leaders were not slow to ac-
knowledge that it was Gibbons to whom they owed this
powerful influence exerted in their behalf.
The battle against Cahenslyism was distinctly a battle
against encroachment by European nationalist groups,
and it was discussed abroad with fully as much heat and
persistence as in the United States. There was no lack
of comprehension of the fact that upon the decision con-
cerning it depended the question as to whether European
groups as such were to obtain a permanent foothold in
America; and when they found Gibbons the outstanding
figure who prevented the threatened incursion, they could
not fail to realize his own power and the strength of the
country for which he stood.
In parts of the world where little was known of Amer-
ica, and less of its public men, the fame of Gibbons pene-
trated. A story was told — whether true or not, it illus-
trated a condition — of an eastern Prince to whom the
United States meant three things and three only. The
first was George Washington, the second was the Rocky
Mountains, and the third was Cardinal Gibbons.
His sweeping success in his defense of the rights of
organized labor and his great influence in stifling Social-
ism in the United States clearly marked the channel of
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 1005
his thoughts on the subject of industrialism, that preg-
nant theme which absorbed the attention of men to such a
great extent during the most fruitful period of his life.
He wished to lift the workingman and at the same time
to save him from extremes. On the question of labor, as
on other questions which he considered to be fundamen-
tal to the progress of his fellowmen, Gibbons was not con-
tent to preach or advise. He stood for action. While
the debt of labor to him for his determined champion-
ship is a general one throughout the civilized world, the
debt for the checking of the progress of Socialism in the
United States was especially one on the part of his fel-
low-countrymen who see in American conservatism and
moderation the only safety of their national institutions.
The verdict in favor of the Knights which he obtained
in Rome was, as he knew it would be, a verdict in favor
of all other labor organizations. It was not a victory so
limited as to impair substantial realization of its fruits
in any way. He obtained full assent to the general right
of labor to organize as a principle of industrialism which
amounted to its protection by the Church. In the exer-
cise of that right, the method of organization, the pol-
icies and plans to be followed in carrying out the pur-
pose, were not abridged. It was a broad charter for men
everywhere, regardless of creed or race.
Had it not been for the influence of Gibbons thus ex-
erted the progress of the labor movement would have
been seriously impeded for an indefinite time in all coun-
tries where the Church was strong. Perhaps to no other
churchman than himself would the project of inducing
the Congregation of the Holy Office to reverse itself
1006 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
have appeared to be practical. Some, indeed, would have
considered the attempt to be little short of madness. A
measure of Gibbons' boldness may be conceived from the
utter fearlessness with which he began and waged the
battle to victory in the face of that obstacle.
Another public service of Gibbons — like his rout of
Cahenslyism, a service both for Church and country — was
that which he rendered in facilitating the transfer
of the status of the Catholic Church in the islands ac-
quired from Spain by the United States to the status
which prevails in this country. Statesmen at Washing-
ton learned the difficulties of this transfer as soon as the
islands passed into American possession. The Church had
extensive property rights in all of them, fortified by the
civil laws of centuries and by the custom and thought
of the people, among whom the system was not different
from that which prevailed in Spain. The problem of
the Friar lands in the Philippines was an especial com-
plication which, as we have seen, threatened to prolong
a state of armed resistance to American authority.
Gibbons early perceived the need of effective inter-
position to assist both Church and State in the readjust-
ment of relations in the islands, so that complete con-
formity with the American system might be obtained
with the least possible jarring of the sensibilities of the
people affected. Obstacles were many and intricate and
he intervened only where the regular processes of nego-
tiation and transfer seemed to be inadequate. Mainly
through his influence, especially as wielded in the course
of his trip to Rome soon after the Spanish War, every
ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS lOOT
difficulty was removed and he lived to see the solution
accepted by all as just and necessary.
No resume of the things accomplished by him would
be complete without reference to his services as a re-
former in American public life. For years he was an
active, conspicuous and continuous reform influence. He
helped in a signal manner to marshal public opinion
against the ballot frauds which once prevailed and were
finally checked, against laxity and corruption in public
administration, against the delays of the courts, against
lynch law, and in fact, against virtually all of the pub-
lic evils which developed to considerable proportions in
his time.
His war upon civic abuses was not an indiscriminate
one, and he wasted no time in the expression of platitudes
about general conditions which could not be applied di-
rectly to relief. Every time he assailed an evil he pro-
posed a remedy, and he drove home his points with per-
sistence when he was once aroused to take a definite stand.
He was not a reformer in the sense of being a scoffer at
the institutions of whose abuses he complained; but he
held that militant watchfulness was essential in order
that the political life of the Republic should be prevented
from degenerating into abuses and scandals. So far as
it was in him, he gave his thought, time and effort to
keep clean the civic temple; and no small share of the
great regard in which he was held by his fellow-country-
men was due to the consistency of his labors in that re-
spect.
CHAPTER LV
GIFTS AS A LEADER
We come now to a point in the consideration of the
elements of greatness that Gibbons possessed to which
no obscurity is attached — his brilliancy as a churchman.
In any appraisement of the gifts and acts which con-
tributed to his undoubted preeminence in this respect it
is well to bear in mind that his purely ecclesiastical record
was obscured to some extent in the public mind by the
remarkable range and force of his activities outside the
Church, which lent themselves more readily to general
comprehension. Much of what he fought for and accom-
plished within the Church was little known at the time,
because so much of it was done in higher councils whose
proceedings were not open to public scrutiny. He had
reached the most intense period of his struggle in behalf
of the right of labor to organize before a word of what
he was doing leaked out, and the surprise of the world
was great when a copy of his burning appeal in behalf
of the object upon which he had set his heart was obtained
surreptitiously and printed. In the ordinary process of
ecclesiastical propriety he would have waited until the
decision had been given before making any public utter-
ance on the subject and even then he might have con-
tinued to preserve silence in order to avoid linking his
own efforts or personality with the result.
1008
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1009
The full measure of what he did in the long grapple
with Cahenslyism was not comprehended at the time by
more than a small, well-informed inner circle of ecclesi-
astical and political life in the United States and Euro-
pean countries. It was widely understood, of course, in
a general way that Gibbons Was the leader of the su-
preme struggle of those who stood for Americanism in
that case. But the details of his systematic and pro-
tracted efforts to still the strident voice of foreign na-
tionalism in America were involved in much obscurity.
He was not of the type of man to claim any credit for
himself in such affairs, and besides he had learned early
in life, like other Catholic ecclesiastics, to preserve per-
sonal confidence inviolate.
His work in organizing and presiding over the Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore, bearing fruit as it did in
the production of a monumental system of Catholic leg-
islation which was subsequently used as a model for
similar councils in other countries, was strictly church-
manship. This was one of the feats of his life, an out-
standing ecclesiastical achievement of the nineteenth
century. It stamped him as the Moses of the Catholic
Church in America in the sense of being its lawgiver.
Leo XIII was one of those who bestowed upon him the
highest praise for this and went so far as to commend
it especially in an encyclical.
No churchman can be put to the test more exactingly
than by being charged under the Pope with the responsi-
bility as Apostolic Delegate for a Plenary Council. The
task requires a complete and analytical knowledge of the
doctrines and discipline of the Church, and a thorough
1010 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
grasp upon its immense range of scholarship. No ecclesi-
astic other than one deeply learned and possessing rare
executive traits could hope to accomplish it in such a
manner as Gibbons did. Each Plenary Council frames
a complete constitution for the discipline of the Church
in its jurisdiction, being a national synod. The broad
field covered, as indicated by the titles of the Third Plen-
ary Council's decrees, runs: The Catholic faith, ecclesi-
astical persons. Divine worship, the sacraments, the edu-
cation of clerics, the education of Catholic youth. Chris-
tian doctrine, zeal for souls, Church property, ecclesiasti-
cal trials and ecclesiastical sepulture.
The foundation laid in the Council was not only com-
prehensive, but enduring. No churchman since that time
who is informed upon the subject has doubted that it was
a master hand that framed the chart by which the Catho-
lic bark has been steered in the United States ever
since.
In the Council, and on many subsequent occasions. Gib-
bons showed his unsurpassed skill as a presiding officer.
His ability as an executive must be taken into account
in an important sense in any estimate of his powers.
While the Archbishop of Baltimore has the place
of honor among American Archbishops, he possesses no
general or patriarchal jurisdiction, and a Cardinal has no
jurisdiction whatever in virtue of being a member of the
Sacred College except in the interregnum following the
death of a Pope. Leo XIII, however, bestowed upon
Gibbons by successive acts a status which no other Car-
dinal outside of Rome possessed. To the Archbishop of
Baltimore were entrusted so many general commissions
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1011
of Church government and authority beyond his immedi-
ate jurisdiction that he became the real ecclesiastical
leader in America, and the force of his personality made
this all the stronger. Other prelates, swayed by devotion
to him and the things for which he stood, were eager to
follow him in thought and action, and thus his aims,
policies and methods became those of the Church
throughout the country. He was the presiding officer at
the meetings of the American Archbishops at which,
under ecclesiastical law, important decisions were taken
and these decisions came to reflect his views virtually
without variation.
His overshadowing object, in which all others were
blended, was that the Church should spread religion to
the widest bounds. This was to be accomplished by the
fostering of the missionary spirit through the appoint-
ment of the ablest leaders as Bishops and the best man as
priests and by removing friction within the Church and
between the Church and people of other creeds. When he
became Archbishop the number of Catholics in the United
States was, in round numbers, 6,000,000; he lived to see
that number tripled. No organization, ecclesiastical,
political or industrial, had a more successful leader in his
time. He was the generalissimo par excellence in scope
and boldness of conception, skill in method and almost
incredible efficiency as judged by the accomplishment of
results.
Gibbons' rank as a churchman was emphasized by his
authorship of the most successful popular treatise upon
Catholic doctrines produced in modern times. The re-
sults that have proceeded from the immense circulation
1012 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of The Faith of Our Fathers were of the kind that he pre-
ferred always to seek — the harvest of souls.
Men in the front ranks of public life testified abun-
dantly to his possession of extraordinary qualities of
statesmanship. He was compared to Cardinal Richelieu
in his gifts in that field, and again it was said of him
that had he entered politics he would have become Presi-
dent of the United States. Undoubtedly he possessed all
the traits that would contribute to make any man Presi-
dent. He had such a strong aptitude for public affairs
that it was an almost irresistible impulse for him to en-
gage in them in some way; yet withal his sense of fitness
in such things was so keen that he never violated deli-
cate proprieties in doing so.
First among his gifts of statesmanship was an all-
comprehensive grasp of government in the abstract, com-
bined with one of the most practical of judgments in the
application of its principles by methods based upon ac-
curate understanding of human nature. He did not wan-
der astray after barren aims, but never once lowered his
standard of principles. His mind reached out even to the
minor details of the processes of politics and government,
and he was as much at ease when talking to a President
upon these subjects, as when talking to a Pope upon
ecclesiastical affairs. He seemed to know how every-
thing in public life ought to be done, often better than
the statesmen knew; and some of the most eminent of
them were glad to learn from him. His natural qual-
ities of leadership fitted him to command the great no
less than the small. He could persuade men against
their wills and they would thank him for doing so.
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1013
Most of his battles for causes within the Church were
won by the exercise of what amounted to consummate
skill in statesmanship. Had a force so compelling in the
affairs of men existed without the softening influences of
religion, one might shudder to think of the lengths to
which it could have gone. Permeated throughout with
humility and guided by the code of a devoted priest, it
was a monumental blessing.
In rating Gibbons as a statesman it is necessary to
consider the limitations under which he labored. He
could hold no public office and never once did he endorse
a political party or a partizan candidate. No other
American outside the ranks of officialdom had even ap-
proximately filled his role as a citizen. As the American
people learned to know him, they listened to his voice
almost as that of a prophet. In times of stress, they
sought his calm, patriotic counsel and received it with
gratitude and full confidence, such as they gave to the
counsel of no other man. Ready — perhaps too ready —
to doubt their chosen leaders in public office, they came
to discard all doubt as to the wisdom and sincerity of
the advice of Gibbons. When he spoke to them his
words were of the common concerns of all his fellow-
countrymen, asking no favors for himself or for his
Church.
As an author. Gibbons may be rated much the same as
he was rated as a preacher. His books were the most pop-
ular and most widely circulated of their kind in America
and, in the case of The Faith of Our Fathers, in the
world; but as he deliberately avoided profundity in ex-
pression so that his message might not go over the heads
1014 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
of the millions whom he sought to reach, his rank in a lit-
erary sense falls short in this respect. One may form
some conception of the heights which it would have been
possible for him to attain as an author from the first edi-
tion of The Faith of Our Fathers, now no longer circu-
lated. That gem of limpid and finished simplicity in
English style was his own individual product, but the
later and expanded form of the same book, embodying a
multitude of suggestions made to him by others, is to
some extent the expression of diverse personalities.
Our Christian Heritage is distinctly strong as a piece
of reasoning, and it is doubtful if any other popular
treatise ever set forth so effectively for the multitudes
to read the defense of the underlying principles of the
Christian faith. Even the logic of the book is simplified
to a point where any one can comprehend it, as Gibbons
wished it to be, and therefore, considered as an intellec-
tual product alone, it is of a different type from the elab-
orate reasoning of the great doctors of the Church.
Again, in the case of his volume of sermons there is the
same apparent desire to write down to the level of the
average man, for he considered his mission at all times
to be for humanity in the mass where the largest harvest
was possible. The Ambassador of Christ, written as a
guide for priests, bears the characteristics of a text-book,
rather than of a general work of literature, though the
limpid style in which he wrote almost everything per-
vades it, and gives it an artistic finish. The Retrospect
of Fifty Years is, for the most part, a group of his previ-
ous public papers and utterances.
In all his books there is an utter lack of any sign of
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1015
the vanity of authorship. Gibbons obviously wished them
to do good to others, rather than to enhance his own repu-
tation. No matter what his unrevealed gifts as an author
may have been, he deliberately moulded them to the
practical in the pursuit of his mission as he saw it.
Any measure of greatness that may be attributed to
him must embrace, of course, an estimate of his general
powers of intellect, and we may profitably attempt a
close view of them. First, it may be said that his intel-
lectual superiority impressed all who came in contact
with him, despite apparent attempts on his part to make
no display of it. Among his mental gifts one of the most
singular and noticeable was largeness of vision. He
judged important matters by a standard which included
a long range of years and varying expressions of human
development. His decisions did not seem to be based
usually upon immediate and plainly evident conditions.
He saw blessing in the future where other men sometimes
predicted disaster; and he perceived ominous danger in
things which other men contemplated with a sense of
security.
The general processes of his intellectual decisions were
so wide that few men could comprehend them without
long and serious thought. In time, most of those who
were associated with him, or who were among his advisers
or were charged with the responsibility of carrying out
his decisions, came to accept his views as scarcely short
of inspired, considering this condition as a phenomenon
for which they could not account, but the existence of
which they formed the habit of acknowledging.
His range of accurate knowledge was one of the most
1016 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
extraordinary of his time, and he seemed to be almost
equally at home on any subject which was placed before
his mind. To cite an instance, he could sit among a
group of United States senators and members of the
lower house of Congress and discuss the question of
Philippine independence, showing the possession of an
immense mass of detailed information in regard to every
aspect which it was worth while to consider. Again, at a
meeting of Archbishops no one present knew the history
of the inner processes of the Church in America as he
did, or possessed a deeper comprehension of all methods
that must be employed according to ecclesiastical pro-
cedure in the settlement of questions, whether or not it
was necessary to refer them to Rome. He would attend
a meeting of the trustees of the Catholic University or
one of the numerous institutions of benevolence main-
tained in the diocese of Baltimore and show a greater
familiarity with details in regard to the particular sub-
ject of discussion than any one else present.
Perhaps the most amazing mental trait which he cus-
tomarily exhibited was perception. His mind appeared
to take in not only the spoken word but even the un-
spoken thought. A visitor — perhaps a personal friend —
would see him with the intention of presenting a long
statement and seeking his judgment, which practically
all who knew him valued more highly than that of any
other man. The Cardinal was willing to listen, but after
a comparatively few words had been spoken it was ap-
parent to the visitor that Gibbons comprehended every-
thing which was in his mind. Evidence of this was so
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1017
plain that the long explanation was often reduced to a
short and simple one.
This might be attributed by some to one of those men-
tal processes akin to the psychic, which it would be out
of place to discuss here. If one sought to explain it by
reliance upon evident things, he would perhaps turn for
a reason to the truly immense knowledge which Gibbons
possessed on a great variety of subjects, including the
characters and personal relations of those with whom he
came in contact, and which enabled him to anticipate
their thoughts by processes of quick deduction.
All the movements of his mind were extraordinarily
rapid, and many of them were apparently instantaneous.
He pondered little over any decision, sometimes appar-
ently not at all. Occasionally some one who consulted
him would assume from this that he spoke hastily and
that there was not sufficient reflection behind his deliver-
ance. If Gibbons were questioned further in such a case,
he would put in words a long chain of thought which
would show that his decision was far from being the
result of what is called "jumping at conclusions."
The elasticity of his mind was as noticeable as its
quickness. It never seemed to tire even though his body
might be almost in a state of collapse. Every subject
seemed to be interesting to him. He could turn from
one to another with complete ease, and the last person
to whom he spoke might form the conclusion that the
matter taken up had been the only one upon his mind
at the time, although far greater affairs might have been
pressing him a moment before, or might be still pressing
1018 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
him. No one ever detected any limit to his intellectual
capacity, no matter what the strain that was put upon
it, and no matter what the cause of that strain.
Naturally akin to quickness of mind, he possessed an
almost incredibly retentive memory. It was a memory
that lasted over such a long chain of years that it mys-
tified those who had a chance to observe its range. Not
only did it apply to the important affairs with which
it was abundantly stored from the circumstances of his
career; it absorbed and retained knowledge of intimate
personal details relating to hundreds of individuals.
Never in such cases did he appear to make a mistake.
As of facts, his memory of faces was remarkable, and
it was said of him that he never seemed to forget a face.
He readily recognized persons whom he had not seen
for a score of years and talked with them on terms of
familiarity, as if their parting had been but of yesterday.
One of the characteristics of his memory was that it
was as retentive of words as of facts. He could not only
remember the substance of statements which it was neces-
sary to cite, but could recall the exact language in which
they were framed, and this, not infrequently, after much
time had elapsed. Even beyond the age of eighty years,
he could memorize a sermon which he had written by
merely reading it over twice.
A great proportion of the Bible was imprinted upon his
mind literally. It was his habit to clothe many of his
thoughts in scriptural language, that of the Old Testa-
ment as well as the New; and churchmen were often
amazed to find long discourses from the Bible rolling
from the end of his tongue, as if he held that sacred book
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1019
before him and were glancing directly into its pages.
It is not easy to believe that any man of his time was
able to quote the Bible as freely as he did and with as
much accuracy. There was no evidence that he ever
attempted to memorize the Bible or any part of it; but
no day passed without extensive reading of it by him,
and thus the sentences clung tenaciously in his mind.
Not only did no intellectual process seem to be beyond
the reach of his powers, but the deepest of such processes
appeared to be easy and simple to him. Nevertheless it
was ingrained in his nature to avoid what he might con-
sider, even if others did not, as an appearance of putting
the mind above the heart. He deliberately turned his
back upon a career that might have centered upon the-
ology and philosophy, as involving retirement from the
world while the clamorous call within his soul was to go
out among men and share to the fullest in their whole-
some aspirations. All this is far from saying that he
underestimated the value to religion of research in the
weightier forms of its scholarship, for he kept up his
studies in them throughout his life. But in regard to
these things he was receptive only.
A proposal or an idea suggested to him seemed to be
instantly separated into its elements in his mind, as if
it were a ray of light broken up by the spectroscope. It
was impossible to deceive him in a mental sense, though
persons who appealed to him for help in need could easily
impose upon him. His gaze seemed to pierce through
the exterior of any one who was talking to him and reveal
every hidden thought.
Alertness was one of the chief characteristics of his
1020 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
intellect. It was always poised for instant action.
Mentally he seemed, even when physically weary, like a
knight riding into the joust with the keen point of his
lance perfectly poised.
The question may be asked — though the answer would
be by no means conclusive — did Gibbons produce an im-
pression of greatness upon others'? History attests that
external appearances are often deceptive as standards of
judgment in this respect. Nevertheless, we may examine
the point as a subordinate if not a major consideration.
First, it is worth while to say that the outstanding feel-
ing of those who came in fairly close contact with him
was a sense of an indefinable superiority on his part,
unassociated with his red robe, his office or any material
circumstance. This impression was so pronounced that
men of practical affairs, possessing no small share of
mental attainments — in fact, some who possessed a very
large share of such attainments — were often confused
in his presence, in spite of all that he habitually did to
put them at their ease.
Only by serious effort could some of them muster
enough calmness to conduct a simple conversation with
him, and they left with their heads in a whirl, recollect-
ing little of what had taken place. After this mental
agitation passed, the remembrance of every thing impor-
tant that had developed in the course of the interview
would usually come back to them, and they would find
themselves puzzled to discover a reason for having been
so seriously disconcerted without any reason that was
either apparent or sufficient.
The effect thus produced was chiefly noticeable in the
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1021
cases of strangers or those who saw him seldom. So far
as the sense of his superiority was concerned, friends who
were accustomed to visit him frequently had precisely
the same feeling; but instead of being overshadowed
with confusion in his presence after they had grown to
know him well, they usually passed to the other extreme
and were soothed to an extraordinary degree by his
gentleness and benignity. In virtually every instance,
except as to persons who did not possess normal disposi-
tions, or who were swayed by some particular motive,
both friends and strangers looked upon him as an enigma,
a unique blend of the greater qualities which men may
exhibit.
How far these impressions proceeded from Gibbons'
force of character and mind, and how far from the more
or less physical force called "personal magnetism," it
would be impossible to judge accurately. This magnet-
ism, to employ the term as a convenient form of expres-
sion, was evident in the largest crowd and, of course,
still more to those in close individual contact with him.
Its power was apparently exerted without effort on his
part and it appeared to be fully as great when he was in
repose as when in action. Everywhere he went it stamped
him as a commanding figure.
When he entered a room at a public meeting, no mat-
ter how high were the dignitaries assembled, all eyes were
turned to him, and the general impression of his
superiority swept like a wave over the crowd. If some
one else happened to be speaking or otherwise taking a
prominent part in the exercises, attention was instantly
diverted to Gibbons and remained centered upon him
1022 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
until he left. An orator might harangue ever so well,
but the eyes of a majority of the crowd were riveted
upon the Cardinal with a gaze as of fascination. His
address, no matter how simple and modest, was rated as
the "hit" of the occasion, and people crowded around
him at the close of the proceedings to do him honor.
No Americans of recent years except Blaine and Roose-
velt had shown personal influence over crowds of men
approaching that of Gibbons. To reach further back,
one would find no approximation closer in time than
Henry Clay, with whom Blaine was sometimes compared.
There was no general parallel between the character of
Gibbons and that of Blaine, who happened to be one of
the men high in political life in America whom he knew
well. Neither was there a general parallel between his
character and Clay's, although both of them possessed a
singular capacity for bringing a harmonious result out
of a discordant gathering.
The red robe of the Cardinal may have heightened the
effect described, but did not give rise to it, for it was
equally noticeable upon occasions when he was dressed
in simple black. Even persons who differed from him
in view in some things would be swept along by the mass
psychology of those around them and join in applauding
him on public occasions.
There was nothing in the physique of Gibbons to cause
awe in others; yet the feeling of awe which many felt
when near him was unmistakable. His features and form
did not primarily express majesty or imply domination;
on the contrary, winning sweetness was his most promi-
nent characteristic.
GIFTS AS A LEADER 1023
He had a wonderful smile which lit up his whole
countenance and matched the expression of his keen blue
eyes. Never did the outward aspect of a man correspond
more closely to his real life, work and purposes. There
was dignity, but it was of the appealing rather than of
the overpowering kind. He seemed to be a living, per-
sonified plea for a fair hearing, a tolerant spirit, good
feeling and earnest, united effort in helpful directions.
In Europe he was considered to be a true type of the
American in appearance. His face and form, combined,
denoted alertness, perception, initiative, activity, vivacity
and even vigor and determination, in spite of his evident
physical frailty. The slightness of his physique was less
apparent when the man was surveyed at a casual glance,
for the face gave the predominant impression. No man's
face was more truly the index of his soul than the face
of Gibbons.
CHAPTER LVI
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH
Sitting in his study one day in July, 1913, Cardinal
Gibbons remarked to a friend: "On next Wednesday I
shall be seventy-nine years old." Then he added in a
subdued voice: "I do not think that I shall live much
longer; my life is nearly spent."
The friend was surprised and shocked that the Cardi-
nal's thoughts should take such a turn, but he smiled
and continued:
"I will soon be an octogenarian and nature must take
its course. Almighty God has blessed me with a long
life, and I am ready to answer whenever He sees fit to
call me to render an account of my stewardship. When
the call comes, I think it will be a sudden one."
The friend inquired anxiously as to the condition of
his health. He answered:
"I still feel young and capable of performing several
more years of labor, yet I think that I will soon pass
away. You know it is the soul that makes us young
or old. If our souls be young, though our bodies be as
old as Methuselah's, we are young indeed."
There had come by that time an unmistakable waning
of Gibbons' strength, and there were signs that he was
as well aware of it as any qne else. Nevertheless, his
1024
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1025
spirit rose in resolute resistance to the thought either
that he should begin a life of partial retirement, as some
of his friends advised, or even that he should discontinue
some of his more exacting duties. He seemed determined
to postpone to the utmost limit his surrender to the grow-
ing restrictions imposed by age. The thought of sparing
himself for his own comfort he could not tolerate, and
he seemed impatient at times when it was voiced by
solicitous persons near him.
Even when he had begun to show a tendency toward
marked physical weakness after periods of prolonged
exertion, he still possessed large reserve resources of
vitality. Not only was his mental vision undimmed in
its sweep of world affairs and his activity unabated in
that field, but he persisted in continuing to perform his
duties as a Bishop, — preaching, consulting with his
clergy, making arduous episcopal journeys in the course
of which he confirmed large classes, and retaining a guid-
ing hand upon all the important affairs of the diocese.
In the course of the next two years, occasional attacks
of rather severe weakness and of the minor physical ail-
ments which he had often endured were not followed by
the rapid recuperation which had so long excited the
wonder of those who knew him well. Sleeplessness
troubled him at times. One Saturday night early in
February, 1915, he was so restless and weak that he
called a member of his household to his assistance in the
early morning. He took no breakfast and seemed to be
in a state verging on collapse. The day was the first
Sunday of the month, — one on which for years he had
been accustomed to preach in the Cathedral — and he
1026 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
had already prepared his sermon. The priests at the
archiepiscopal residence pleaded with him not to go to
the Cathedral, but to remain quietly in his study. Know-
ing his customary reaction to such appeals, they were not
surprised when he replied that as the fact that he was
to preach had been announced he would not disappoint
the large congregation which he knew would be assembled
in the church.
In the pulpit it was apparent that his throat was
troubling him seriously, and several times while deliver-
ing his discourse he passed his hand across his forehead
in a gesture indicating faintness. Nevertheless, although
it was obvious that the effort was considerably greater
than usual, he contrived to finish his sermon and his
unimpaired memory enabled him to adhere to the lan-
guage of the discourse as he had written it in advance.
That night he retired early and in a short time was
able to visit friends in the country for a few days' rest,
which appeared to restore him temporarily.
The difficulty of continuing to preach monthly In the
Cathedral, in addition to the other duties which he in-
sisted upon performing, increased. In December of the
same year, when he was eighty-one, he thought seriously
for the first time of reducing the number of his sermons
in the course of the next year, although he had no idea
of abandoning them. This was only a thought at first,
and he did not yield to it until another year had elapsed,
when he let it be known that he would discontinue the
delivery of sermons at stated periods.
He passed his last birthday on earth ^ in the congenial
* Julj"- 23, 192a
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1027
surroundings of the rural home of a member of the
Shriver family at Union Mills. His strength seemed to
be above the average on that day, and his mind surged
with the thoughts which lay closest to him. Conversing
upon some of these, he said :
"Plato was accustomed to thank the gods that he was
born in a country so advanced in culture and civilization
as Greece, and that he had Socrates for a teacher, I
thank the Lord that I was born and reared in a country
so favored as the United States, where every man is pro-
tected in the enjoyment of life and property with the
least possible restriction of personal liberty.
"Those who are dissatisfied with the Constitution of
the United States; those stirring up discord and strife;
those anarchists who come from abroad to sow seeds
of revolt, not only display a deplorable madness, but
are guilty of base ingratitude in stabbing the mother who
has given them hospitality.
"I thank Almighty God not only in being a citizen
of the United States, but in being a member of the Chris-
tian family. From the dawn of reason to the present
hour the Lord has been my guiding star and is my hope
of eternal salvation, without which life would not be
worth living.
"Not only is Christ the life of the soul, but the prin-
ciples He has left us are the sustaining strength of the
nation. If our statesmen and citizens are guided in
political and civil conduct by the sublime teaching of
the Gospel, the vigor and enduring stability of our nation
are secured.
"My hope in the perpetuity of our Government rests
in the practical sense of the American people, who in
good time will correct the extravagance of fanatical in-
novators and bring us back to the safe paths outlined by
1028 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
the fathers. My hope rests, too, in the guidance of an
overruling Providence."
In September he presided at a meeting of the Hier-
archy in Washington, at which a plea was presented
from some European nationals in regard to the composi-
tion of that body, which Gibbons considered to be a new
threat of encroachment. There was a discussion and one
of the prelates who was present requested him to give
his opinion. His stooping figure became erect and his
failing voice rang with emotion as he replied:
"We are bound in unity of faith and obedience to the
Vicar of Christ ; but our Church knows nothing of Euro-
pean politicians, and we must never allow them to lay
hands on her fair structure."
For several months more he continued the exertions
against which his friends had so often warned him.
The beginning of the end came in November of that
year. For Sunday, the seventh day of the month, he
accepted an invitation to confirm a class of more than
one hundred and preach in St. Patrick's Church, Havre
de Grace, Maryland, despite the fact that each visit of
that character involved customarily for him a day of ex-
ceptional strain. On Saturday night the Cardinal ap-
peared to be very weak and restless. In the morning he
was troubled with hoarseness and remarked to his secre-
tary: "I fear that I shall be unable to preach."^
As was usual when he visited one of the churches in
^An intimate account of Cardinal Gibbons' last illness is given by his
secretary and companion during that period, the Rev. Albert E. Smith,
in Smith and Fitzpatrick's Cardinal Gibbons, Churchman and Citizen,
from which many facts embraced in this chapter are taken.
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LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1029
his diocese, his participation was the event of the day
in the town and an overflowing congregation was pres-
ent. He looked over the expectant crowd after entering
the church, reconsidered his determination and said :
"I cannot disappoint these good people; I will say a
few words at the close of the Mass."
He persisted in carrying out his decision, but faltered
suddenly while speaking. Several persons rushed to his
side and prevented him from falling. After a short
period of rest in a chair, he seemed to recover and finished
his discourse. He confirmed the large class and greeted
the congregation at a reception in the sacristy. The
same afternoon he attended a reception in his honor
at the home of Commodore and Mrs. Richards, a short
distance from Havre de Grace. There was no indication
that his collapse in the pulpit had proceeded from more
than temporary causes.
During that month he continued to attend to his work
in Baltimore and presided at the annual meeting of
the Board of Indian and Negro Missions, in whose efforts
he had taken an especially deep interest for many years.
On the evening before Thanksgiving Day, a friend who
visited him in his study found him crouched in a chair,
deathly pale and in a state evidently approaching col-
lapse. Gibbons admitted that he was almost incapable
of exertion, and remarked that he knew he was unpre-
pared to attend the Pan American Mass the next day
in St. Patrick's Church, Washington, at which he was
expected to be present; but, he exclaimed with spirit,
"I will go."
To the visitor this seemed to be merely a rash decision.
1030 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The general celebration of Thanksgiving had become
commonplace, but it meant far more to Gibbons than to
most men. He could not forget that more than forty
years back, when many of the religious groups in Amer-
ica were apathetic in regard to the observance of the
day, he had led the way for the Catholic Church to give
her full and continuous adherence to the growing na-
tional custom, and that it was he who had instituted the
Pan American Mass, at which Presidents, cabinet mem-
bers and Latin-American diplomats were wont to as-
semble annually. Not only did he carry out his inten-
tion of joining in the service in Washington the next day,
but a few hours after the Mass he blessed the new
parochial school of St. Aloysius Church.
On December 3 the Cardinal's eldest sister, Mary, died
in New Orleans, at the age of ninety-four years. On
account of the condition of his health and the long jour-
ney that would have been involved, it was impossible
for him to attend the funeral.
Two days afterward, although it was evident to all
those in his entourage that he ought not to leave Balti-
more even for a short trip when his health was in such a
critical state, he persisted in going to Emmitsburg, Mary-
land, intending to pontificate at a Mass at St. Joseph's
College, the mother house of the Sisters of Charity, in
honor of the beatification of Louise de Marillac and
the four martyrs of Arras. For some time he had suffered
from fainting spells and difficulty in breathing. Al-
though unable to pontificate, he was present on his throne
throughout the service.
The need of rest being imperative, he went that after-
CARDINAL GIBBONS AS HE WAS LAST REMEMBERED
From the portrait by Marie de Ford Kelkir, presented h;/ the Car-
dinal to Miss Mary O. Shriver, December 16, 1920
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1031
noon to the home of Miss Mary O. Shriver at Union
Mills, where he expected, as before, to recover his
strength. But his weakness increased and prostrated him
in bed, causing grave apprehensions. His malady was
the old age disease, arteriosclerosis, the hardening and
thickening of the arteries, but he remained organically
sound.
Four days after his arrival at the Shriver residence he
celebrated his last Mass. He lacked the strength to
descend the altar steps, but, leaning against the altar,
gave communion to the members of the family as they
knelt.
On the evening of December l6 he presented a por-
trait of himself, painted by Marie de Ford Keller, of
Baltimore, to Miss Shriver at a little ceremony, be-
ing carried down the stairs from his room by members
of the family, who made a chair with their hands. To
the recipient he said :
"I don't want you to forget me. This gift is only a
slight mark of appreciation of your goodness to me."
The exertion was evidently too much for him, for so
critical did his condition become in the course of the
night that at 2 a. m. he was anointed for death by his
secretary. He rallied, but his sinking spells became
increasingly frequent.
As he lay in bed. Von Hoist's History of the United
States was read to him at intervals of the day. He had
recently read Beveridge's Life of John Marshall, and
new biographies of Jefferson and Andrew Jackson.
On Christmas Day, the first one in fifty-two years on
which he had not pontificated, he could not leave his bed
1032 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and listened to the celebration of a low Mass in the
residence, accompanied by the singing of Christmas
hymns. By that time he appeared to be convinced that
he had not long to live. After one of his periods of ex-
treme weakness, he said: "I wish that our good Lord
would take me to Himself."
He was greatly cheered on that day by the receipt of
the following message, expressing Pope Benedict's solici-
tude for him:
"His Holiness begs the Lord for every grace and com-
fort for your Eminence, who, in your laborious life, has
rendered such service to the Church. He sends to you
with paternal affection his special Apostolic Benediction."
(Cardinal) "Gasparri."
At the midnight Mass at the Vatican, the Pope offered
special prayers for Gibbons' recovery.
In the course of the following week, he was visited at
the Shriver house by Archbishop Bonzano, the Apostolic
Delegate; Bishop Shahan, Rector of the Catholic Uni-
versity; Bishop Russell, of Charleston, and a number of
priests and laymen. Bishop Corrigan, his auxiliary,
called and gave him reports of the diocesan work. The
renewed evidence of affection for himself shown by prel-
ates and priests appeared to make a deep impression
upon him. He said :
"I have so much to be thankful for. See how different
is the end of my life from that of Cardinal Manning.^
My clergy are devoted ; I have a loyal vicar general and
a diocese in which there are no factions."
*The allusion was to the comparative isolation in which Manning
passed his last days.
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1033
On New Year's Day the solicitude of President Wilson
for the Cardinal was conveyed in the following message
from the President's secretary to Bishop Corrigan:
"The President has learned with sympathy and dis-
tress of the Cardinal's illness, and hopes that he may
very soon hear of a decided turn for the better."
Gibbons replied to the President as follows:
"From my sick bed I send you my heartfelt thanks for
your solicitude in my regard, and I pray God may bring
you every blessing in this New Year."
In the first few days of the year he seemed to be rally-
ing, and expressed the wish to be removed to the archi-
episcopal house in Baltimore, in which he had lived for
forty-three years. He said: "I want to die in my own
home. When I reach Baltimore, I can then say nunc
dimittis!'' To his physicians he said that he had a feel-
ing that he would be able to undergo the journey with
safety, and they consented to it. He would not permit
his removal in an ambulance, and was conveyed to Balti-
more in an automobile in which he was made as com-
fortable as possible by means of pillows.
There seemed to be a transformation in him as he re-
entered the house, to which so many of his tenderest
memories clung. As he was borne through the front door
on a stretcher, he inquired for the lad who attended the
door, saying: "Where is my little red-headed boy*?"
The familiar faces and scenes brightened his spirits. For
several days his condition showed a steady improvement,
and once he remarked to his physician. Dr. Charles
O' Donovan : "I am beginning to feel my old self again."
1034 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
Cardinals O'Connell, Mercier and many others sent
messages to him. Secretary of State Colby and the mis-
sion from the United States Government which was then
about to return home after a series of official visits to
governments in South America cabled from Montevideo,
expressing the anxiety of the members of the party over
reports of his condition published there.
As the seeming improvement continued, he was per-
mitted to leave his bed and sit in a wheel-chair for con-
siderable periods of each day. Later he walked about
his study for a few minutes at a time, supported by others.
Permission was also given by his physician for motor-
car trips, on bright days, about the city. For a time he
was not permitted to receive visitors; but as this isolation
had a bad effect, the rule was changed and a few visitors
were allowed to see him every day, their presence appear-
ing to improve his spirits in a marked degree.
As it was impossible to prevent his mind from taking
up affairs of the diocese and other questions which had
concerned him for so long a period, the restrictions in
regard to his attention to these were also relaxed. In
January he gave warm public support to a movement to
raise a fund for rebuilding St. Mary's Industrial School,
where hundreds of boys had felt the inspiration of his
personal interest in them. The destruction of the school
by fire had been a heavy blow to him. He issued an
appeal to the Knights of Columbus to assist in the re-
building, and enlisted their active cooperation. In this
appeal he said of the school :
"I have been President of its board of trustees for
more than forty years, I have seen it grow year by year.
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1035
its work extend, its influence expand. I have witnessed
this work of half a century almost wiped out by fire in
a single day.
"I would not appeal to you if St. Mary's were merely
a local institution. Our enrollment, during the school's
existence, of nearly thirteen thousand youths from eight
to twenty-one years old has come from forty-five States.
The nine hundred under the care of the Brothers on the
day of the fire represented thirty-three States and nine-
teen religious denominations.
"The seven hundred and eighty-five of our youth who
enlisted directly from the school in war days, and the
thirty-two hundred 'old' boys who found their way into
the service, speak volumes for the spirit of true patrio-
tism fostered and the physical fitness nurtured at the
school.
"I may not live to see this temple rebuilt, but, like
David of old, I shall be happy to see the materials as-
sembled. I would see perpetuated at this school for the
neglected boy, semi-national as it is, a monument to the
charity of the Knights, a hall graced with the 'K. of C ;
an ever-present lesson of mutual service and brotherly
aid to be learned by the thousands of boys the new St.
Mary's will educate and train in the way of sturdy man-
hood and right citizenship."
When the savings movement fostered by the United
States Treasury during the war was renewed, he again
gave effective help to it. In February he sent a letter
to the heads of all Catholic schools in the archdiocese of
Baltimore approving the movement and urging their co-
operation, saying:
"The action of the United States Government in con-
tinuing the campaign to develop habits of thrift on the
part of the children of this nation is to be commended.
1036 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
I believe that every person in a position to be of assist-
ance in developing interest in this subject and in educat-
ing the people in habits of economy and thrift should
give support to this movement. No greater service can
be rendered the children of the country than to teach
them the value of money."
In forwarding this endorsement to the Savings Di-
vision of the Treasury, he wrote in his own hand on the
back of it :
"I fully approve your desire to confer with the heads
of the Catholic Schools in this archdiocese and commend
your mission to them."
For Washington's birthday he contributed an article
to the issue of the Baltimore Catholic Review published
a few days in advance of that anniversary. This, his
last utterance of a general nature, was permeated
throughout by thoughts which had moved him powerfully
for many years and were struggling for final expression
as his life drew near the end. It was, in effect, a farewell
message to the American people, in which light it was
considered throughout the country, where it was printed
and circulated widely by newspapers.
The subject of this valedictory was "The Constitu-
tion and George Washington." It began:
"As the years go by I am more than ever convinced
that the Constitution of the United States is the greatest
instrument of government that ever issued from the hand
of man. Drawn up in the infancy of our Republic, and
amid the fears and suspicions and opposition of many
patriotic men, it has weathered the storm periods of
American public life and has proved elastic enough to
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1037
withstand every strain put upon it by party spirit, West-
ern development, world-wide immigration, wars little
and great, far-reaching social and economic changes, in-
ventions and discoveries, the growth of individual wealth
and the vagaries of endless reformers.
"That within the short space of one hundred years we
have grown to be a great nation, so much so that to-day
the United States is rightly regarded as the first among
the nations of the earth, is due to the Constitution, the
palladium of our liberties and the landmark in our march
of progress.
"When George Washington secured its final adoption,
largely out of respect for his judgment and as a tribute
of confidence in him, he made all mankind his debtor
forever, for the Constitution has proved the bulwark of
every right and every fair promise that the American
Revolution stood for. With the Constitution came the
solidarity and the union which has marked our progress
up to now; without it we would have remained thirteen
independent colonies, with the passions and prejudices
peculiar to each. For all time to come may it remain
the instrument safeguarding our national life and insur-
ing us the liberties and freedom which it guarantees."
The Cardinal next turned to consideration of the
guarantee of religious liberty in the Constitution, which
had been his bulwark in his lifelong struggle against
intolerance. He wrote :
"For the first time in the history of mankind religious
liberty was here secured to all men as a right under Fed-
eral protection. That was indeed a big thing, a mighty
thing for man to do, to write into the fundamentals
of a Government enactments that would stem the tide of
popular and traditional prejudices. But that the Con-
stitution of the United States did, so that not only was
1038 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
religious intolerance branded as something un-American,
but future American citizens came to our shores full
hearted and well disposed, and the whole world was made
a debtor to the wise founders of this charter of human
rights and human interests.
"Had this wise provision been left out of the Constitu-
tion, who could have foreseen the evils confronting us!
"No one knows better than myself what a line of
demarcation and separation religion can cut in this coun-
try from ocean to ocean, and no one has been more eager
and earnest in his effort to keep down and repress
religious distinction.
"I fear no enemy from without. The enemy I fear is
he who, forgetting human nature and the history of
Europe, would raise the question of another's religious
belief and introduce strife and discord into the life of
our country. So deep and strong are religious feelings
that any fostering of religious differences can have but
one effect: to destroy what a hundred years of trial and
test has proved to be the greatest blessing enjoyed by
man here below.
"Fortunately our common law protects every American
in his religious belief, as it protects him in his civil rights,
so that whatever offenses may be occasionally committed
here in this respect are local and temporary, and are uni-
versally regarded as un-American and are for this reason
shortlived. The great wrongs which men have suffered
elsewhere in this respect of religion are here unthinkable.
"Moreover, because the question of religion had ever
been the burning question with the masses who looked
eagerly toward America, and were in time destined to
come to our shores, the Constitution held out to them
the hope that here on this blessed soil opportunity would
be given them of worshipping God after the dictates of
their own consciences. While the founders of the Ameri-
can Republic could not have foreseen the coming flood
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1039
of European immigration, they exhibited, nevertheless,
in respect of religion the greatest prudence, and closed
with practical sagacity the only source of mutual discord
and injustice that the Republic had then to fear."
He took up the question of foreign malcontents, re-
garding whom he had expressed particularly vigorous
views when they had threatened to create serious discord
in the United States soon after the World War. The
article proceeded:
"I was quoted in the newspapers a few weeks ago as
saying of certain foreign elements in this country that
if they did not like our laws, let them return to their
own country; and if they did not return they should be
made to do so. Directed, as these words are, against
those who would abuse the liberty of worship and other
liberties here offered and would strive to overthrow the
very instrument of their freedom, I offer no apology
for them. In this all-important matter of religious lib-
erty time has proved the wisdom of our founders, and
we would be recreant to the trust committed to us if we
failed to teach and uphold the principles upon which our
Government rests."
Gibbons called attention in the article to the trials
through which America had passed, and expressed the
view that "a nation which could survive the strain thus
put upon it must be possessed of extraordinary vitality
and resource." He recalled his own experiences in the
Civil War "in which I was a chaplain at Fort McHenry"
and the intensity of the feelings which were aroused on
both sides in that strife. The conflict in 1876 over the
Presidential succession as between Tilden and Hayes he
1040 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
also mentioned as one of the great episodes which had
demonstrated the capacity for unity and constitutional
cooperation among the American people, saying that it
"filled me with more fear for the safety of the Republic
than did the four years of Civil War."
It was the Constitution, he held, which had safe-
guarded the economic life of the country, in which un-
exampled development had been obtained, bringing
"riches and comforts that beggar description and per-
haps surpass all that mankind has hitherto drawn from
earth and sea." He especially eulogized the Supreme
Court as the "coordinating medium in our national life,"
which had been indispensable to the stability of the
Constitution.
Upon Washington the words of the almost dying man
dwelt with something akin to tenderness. He declared
that the first President during his two terms "gave force
and direction to the written principles of the Constitu-
tion, and proved even in the early days of its existence
how practical a document it was in its bearings upon
affairs and men." His conclusion was largely a summing
up of the political creed of his life. It read :
"It is my earnest hope that all my fellow citizens will
find in the liberty and freedom guaranteed by the Con-
stitution peace and security, and in the character of
George Washington virtues and qualities worthy of the
highest imitation."
The finale of those homilies on general conditions of
life which he had been accustomed to deliver in public
addresses and through the medium of magazine and
newspaper interviews appeared in the American Maga-
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1041
zine for March, the month in which he died. It was
written by Bruce Barton, who had obtained the material
from Gibbons in his study in Baltimore before he had
been stricken with the most serious phase of his last ill-
ness. It was called an Easter message, but before Easter
dawned the earthly voice of Gibbons was silent.
The title of this article — an extraordinary one in view
of the circumstances — was "Young Man, Expect Great
Things." It was a phrase which Gibbons had used in
the course of his conversation with Mr. Barton. The
subject of old age and youth had been introduced, and
the Cardinal said:
"When a man begins to look back, then he is old. I
never look back. Lot's wife looked back, you remember,
and was destroyed. Looking back is destruction always
— the beginning of the end. After a person passes middle
life he ought to surround himself with those who have a
long time yet to look forward.
"Until you are forty, seek the companionship of men
who are older. After that, keep a vital contact with
those who are younger. That is a pretty good rule. Until
my recent sickness I used to walk every afternoon from
five to six, and whom did I choose for companions'? Stu-
dents from the Seminary. They come from every part
of the United States : one day a man from Massachusetts,
another day one from Oklahoma, and so on. They tell^
me their hopes and their ambitions and their plans.
"And do you want to know what I say to them"? I say,
'Young man, expect great things! Expect great things
of God; great things of your fellow men and of yourself.
Expect great things of America. For great opportunities
are ahead; greater than any that have come before. But
only those who have the courage and the vision to expect
them will profit when they come.'
1042 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
"Say to your young men for me: 'Be tolerant. For-
get the prejudices that separate you from other men, and
remember the great common ties that bind us all together
as children of God, traveling the road of life together.
And your reward will be in proportion to your service.'
"Again and again, I have seen men start out in life
selfishly to get all they could get for themselves, and in
the end they are baffled and puzzled. They can't under-
stand why, with all their striving, they have been sur-
passed by men who apparently neglected their own selfish
interests to render real service, and to be kind to other
men as they went along. They do not understand that
those unselfish servants of the race have the good will
of thousands of people working for them ; and that God,
whose eye can mark even the fall of a single sparrow,
never lets an act of real devotion and service go without
its reward.
"That sounds like religion rather than business; but
there is no business success, in the truest sense, that is
not a religious success. Men are spirits, not merely bodies
and appetites and needs; and the business that is built
on the great spiritual laws of service and tolerance and
kindliness builds on foundations that are eternal."
On March 9 he issued an appeal in behalf of the Ameri-
can Committee for Relief in Ireland, which was collect-
ing a fund for aiding destitute women and children in
that country.
There was usually an objective for each of the motor-
car trips which Gibbons was permitted by his physician
to take during those last days when the shadow of his
impending dissolution hung over his grief-stricken house-
hold. Most of these objectives were Catholic institu-
tions of benevolence in Baltimore, whose work lay close
to his heart and had been unceasingly encouraged by him
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1043
during nearly half a century. He visited an orphan
asylum, several hospitals, the home of the Little Sisters
of the Poor, a convent and St. Charles' College. At St.
Agnes' Hospital he bestowed words of comfort upon a
Sister of Charity who had been confined to a wheel-chair
for more than twenty years, paralyzed from the waist
down.
On several occasions he was carried in his wheel-chair
into the Cathedral. His thoughts turned to his possible
appearance there on Easter Sunday, and on one of his
visits he counted the number of steps leading to the
archiepiscopal throne, saying that he might be able to
mount them, and from that position give his blessing
to the people. Doubting his ability to stand during such
a ceremony, he spoke on another occasion of remaining
seated in his chair and bestowing the blessing from the
altar railing. He also looked forward to a meeting of
the trustees of the Catholic University, which was soon
to take place, and in which he ardently desired to partici-
pate in some way.
The rebound of his vitality after his return to his own
home was short-lived. Gradually his infirmities became
more painful and baffling, causing periods of great de-
pression. In one of these periods he remarked:
"Only God knows what I suffer. Most gladly would
I change my position with that of the simplest child of
the city."
At times he expressed a wish for death. To one of his
visitors he said :
"They are thinking of installing an elevator in the
house so that I may be enabled to go downstairs. The
104-4 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
only elevator for which I am looking is Jacob's ladder,
whereby I may go to my true home."
While consciousness remained, he continued to be
solicitous for all the members of his household, from
the rector of the Cathedral to the "little red-headed boy"
who attended his door. On the last Sunday of his life,
the Sunday before Easter, he directed that the lad should
be freed from his duties during the holiday and that
money should be given him in order that he might go
to Wilmington to visit a relative.
The final collapse began on that day. A sudden change
in the Cardinal's condition about seven o'clock in the
evening caused Sister Ludovic, of the Bon Secours, his
chief nurse, to give the alarm. The priests of the archi-
episcopal household were summoned, and they heard him
murmur :
"I want to go home. Come, it is time for us to go.
When shall we start'?"
These words were spoken while he was apparently in
the possession of full consciousness, for he recognized
each of those who were gathered about his bedside. Al-
though a rally followed, it was then evident that death
was near.
On the following day, he himself felt that he had but a
short time to live. Archbishop Bonzano, the Apostolic
Delegate, visited him. The Delegate's own account of
the meeting was:
"I went to see the Cardinal for the last time on Mon-
day, March 21. The Cardinal had expressed a desire to
see me, and though not feeling well, I felt I ought to go
to see him.
LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1045
"When I was introduced into his room he smiled and
tried to embrace me.
" 'I am very glad you have come,' he said to me, 'but
this is your last visit. I am a very sick man and the end
is near.'
" 'We are hoping and praying, Your Eminence,' I re-
plied, 'that God will prolong your life. The Holy
Father likewise is praying for you.'
" 'How good of him to remember,' said the Cardinal.
'But it is better for me to go than him, as his death
would be a calamity to the Church in these troublesome
times.'
"Here the conversation was stopped by a heart attack
suffered by his Eminence. I then gave the Cardinal the
Papal Blessing, which he received with fervor and in a
most touching maimer, trying to make the sign of the
Cross.
"The Cardinal then blessed me. After that I caught
a few indistinct words, among which was the name of
the Holy Father. Fearing I might annoy him, I said
good-bye. He thanked me.
"I left the room happy and sorry — happy to have seen
the great Cardinal; sorry to see the end of a great life.
The great Cardinal kept his attachment to the Holy
Father and to his representative to the very last." *
On Monday and Tuesday his vitality bore him up in
its expiring efforts. Speaking to the priests of his house-
hold on Tuesday evening, he said :
"You do not know how I suffer. The imagination is
a powerful thing. My reason tells me that the images
which rise before me have no foundation in fact. Faith
must ever be the consolation of all men. Without faith
we can accomplish little. Faith bears us up in our trials."
* Baltimore Catholic Re'vieiv,
1046 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
At the request of one of the priests he gave his blessing
to the group, the last which he was to bestow on earth.
Then he said: "What a loyal, devoted band of priests!"
That night he became unconscious and remained so
until the end, with the exception of a few minutes on
Wednesday morning when he rallied and spoke these,
his last words, in a whisper :
"I have had a good day."
On Holy Thursday morning, March 24, 1921, while
the near-by Cathedral was filled with worshipers, evident
signs appeared that the Cardinal's death was at last about
to come and the priests and sisters who had cared for him
gathered lovingly around the bedside. The Rev, Louis
R. Stickney, rector of the Cathedral, said the prayers for
the dying. It was 1 1 133 o'clock when the heart gave its
last feeble flutter and that wonderful pilgrimage on earth
which had so profoundly affected the lives of countless
thousands was finished.
CHAPTER LVII
THE NATION'S HOMAGE
Baltimore, where the brilliant personality of Gibbons
had been the dominant individual influence for so many
years, was plunged into profound sorrow by his death as
it had been by the death of no man in all the history
of the city. As soon as word was conveyed to the Mayor,
Mr. Broening, he ordered the bell of the City Hall to be
tolled eighty-six times, once for each year of the Cardi-
nal's life.^ The Mayor called a special session of the
City Council, which adopted resolutions of eulogy. Pro-
ceedings in all of the courts in the city were suspended
as the bell began its sad message. In the Circuit Court,
Isaac Lobe Straus, former Attorney General of Mary-
land, a member of the Jewish faith, moved an adjourn-
ment for the day, saying:
*T have the very sad office of announcing to the Court
that I have learned, as, doubtless your Honor has learned,
of the decease of a great figure who, for half a century,
has brought surpassing illustriousness to Maryland, and
to the world, James Cardinal Gibbons. He has passed
away. The world, this State, have suffered an irrepa-
rable loss. Our people and people everywhere will mourn
him; but his influence will live, his memory will live for-
ever as one of the moral, spiritual and civic treasures
of this State and of all the world."
* Cardinal Gibbons died at the age of eighty-six years, eight months
and one day.
1047
104-8 LIFE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The legislatures of Maryland and New York ad-
journed as a mark of respect.
Far beyond his beloved Baltimore and Maryland, the
death of Gibbons was marked by a voicing of the nation's
sorrow such as had been invoked by the passing of only a
few of the chosen figures in her history. President
Harding sent the following message to Bishop Corrigan :
"In common with all our people, I mourn the death
of Cardinal Gibbons. His long and notable service to
the country and to church makes us all his debtors. He
was ever ready to lend his encouragement to any move-
ment for the betterment of his fellow men. He was the
very finest type of citizen and churchman.
"It was my good fortune to know him personally and
I held him in the highest esteem and veneration. His
death is a distinct loss to the country, but it brings to
fuller appreciation a great and admirable life." ^
Ex-President Taf t said : ^
"He did not belong to the Catholic Church alone, but
he belonged to the country at large. He was Catholic
not only in the religious 
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